We just got some whiplash turning around to look in the archives, but it looks like a long-ago mooted Hugh Jackman musical — that we figured was left buried in the sands of time — is still very much alive.
Way back in August 2009 — or to put it another way, two years ago — it was announced that Jackman would exercise his song and dance muscles in “The Greatest Showman On Earth,” a story about famed circus showman P.T. Barnum in musical form. Worryingly, the script is written by Jenny Bicks who penned the “The Sex and the City” movie and hopefully she won’t “Carrie up” the plot that will center on Barnum’s adoration for Swedish opera singer Jenny Lund (a role yet to be cast, let the shortlist begin). It should also be noted that two years ago, U.K. artist Mika was being eyed to write a contemporary score and songs for the film, but we presume that is no longer planned (and there’s no mention of him in this latest update). All this said, the movie is still on track as Variety reports that commercials director Michael Gracey is now on board to helm the movie.
So why Gracey? Well, he directed a pretty nifty and energetic Lipton ice tea commercial (see below) that featured none other than Jackman dancing his way through a hotel and clearly, the two hit it off. While the fresh movement is nice, this one is still a ways off. Jackman starts shooting “The Wolverine” this fall with James Mangold at the helm and is likely to follow it up with Tom Hooper‘s “Les Miserables.” But no worries for Gracey, who recently took over the Snow-White-but-it’s-not-a-Snow-White movie “The Order of the Seven” — he’ll knock that out first before tackling ‘Showman.’