Hugh Jackman is attached to play American showman P.T. Barnum in The Greatest Showman on Earth, an original contemporary musical to be penned by Jenny Bicks (Sex and the City).

Jackman will play the showman with a penchant for hoaxing a gullible public as he creates the three-ring circus that made him famous. The musical also focuses on his infatuation with singer Jenny Lind — the so-called Swedish Nightingale.

The movie will carry a contemporary musical score, and the studio is in talks with British singer-songwriter Mika to write music and lyrics.  I can hear the melodies now!

The musical follows the old Hollywood tradition wherein musicals were scripted with specific actors in mind. The Lind role is being scripted for Anne Hathaway, who held her own with Jackman in his opening Oscar’s number.

Jackman has a penchant to bring musicals back to the big screen. The Greatest Show on Earth adds another to the properties he is developing.  Another one of those properties is a David Magee-scripted Carousel remake wherein Jackman also wants Hathaway as his female lead in the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic.

(Source)