Remember late last year when 20th Century Fox’s PR department hilariously went into overdrive before the opening of Australia to assure the world that Hugh Jackman was, in fact, a slab of total man-beef but in a completely 100% heterosexual way?
Well now that both Australia and X-Men Origins: Wolverine have opened, who cares?!
Variety is reporting that Fox has inked a deal for Jackman to star in The Greatest Showman on Earth, an original musical based on the life of entertainer and entrepreneur P.T. Barnum. The film is scripted by Jenny Bicks (Sex and the City) and produced by Laurence Mark (Dreamgirls), both of whom previously worked with Jackman on the 2009 Oscars. Pop singer Mika is in negotiations to write the music and the filmmakers are writing the female lead with Anne Hathaway in mind.
This is the second musical Jackman is hoping to recruit Hathaway for. His big screen version of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Carousel, a sure contender for world’s most depressing musical, is being set up at Fox 2000.
Are you ready to see Tony-award winning Jackman take his singing to the silver screen?