Jack Skellington Jack Skellington Jack Skellington is a character and the main protagonist of the 1993 film "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Jack is the "Pumpkin King" of Halloween Town, a fantasy world based solely on the Halloween holiday. Jack is voiced by Chris Sarandon. Danny Elfman provided Jack's singing voice in the film, although Sarandon has sung as Jack in subsequent productions. His overall appearance is a skeleton dressed in a black pin-striped suit and a bow tie that strongly resembles a black bat. Originally, his suit was meant to be completely black, but it blended with the background too well, so
Tim Burton to direct. Burton came on and Warner Bros. set a theatrical release date for the summer of 1998, the 60th anniversary of the character's debut in "Action Comics". Nicolas Cage was signed on to play Superman, Burton hired Wesley Strick to rewrite Smith's script and the film entered pre-production in June 1997. For budgetary reasons, Warner Bros. ordered another rewrite from Dan Gilroy, delayed the film and ultimately put it on hold in April 1998. Burton then left to direct "Sleepy Hollow". Burton has depicted the experience as a difficult one, citing differences with producer Jon Peters and the studio,