Hugh Jackman’s first film of his post-Wolverine career will be a routine to his roots: musicals. An unknown song and dance man before becoming a household name thanks to his iconic portrayal of Wolverine in the X-Men films, Jackman will be headlining the big holiday musical of 2017. With the songwriters of La La Land, will The Greatest Showman, starring Jackman as circus legend P.T. Barnum be able to duplicate that film’s success? To listen to the full version of the song “This Is Me” by Keana Settle, which will be going head-to-head with Beauty and the Beast’s contributions come Oscar time, scroll down. It’s literally playing on loop in my head and has been for days. Co-starring Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson, and Zendaya, The Greatest Showman will open Christmas Day. Read more below from Coming Soon.
Inspired by the imagination of P.T. Barnum, The Greatest Showman is an original musical that celebrates the birth of show business & tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.
The Greatest Showman is directed by exciting new filmmaker, Michael Gracey, with songs by Academy Award winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land). Hugh Jackman produced The Greatest Showman alongside Laurence Mark and Chernin Entertainment. Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3, Star Wars: The Force Awakens), Jenny Bicks (Rio 2, Sex and the City) and Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, Beauty and the Beast) wrote the screenplay.
i look forward to this and I hope it is an easy going “puff piece” i don’t like watching bio pics like Ali or even Selma which show us the personal demons of legendary leaders and or figures. Selma should have been celebratory but made me wince by showing Dr king’s personal philanderings. Anyhow Jackman should be perfect for this role as he was for Les Miserables.
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I can’t really say I hate musicals anymore after I named La La Land best picture last year, and I love Jackman, so I’m in on this. Plus I cannot GET THIS SONG OUT OF MY HEEEEEAAAAD!
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La la land was the best movie I saw last year but I never saw moonlight. My fiance saw it she liked it but she didn’t love it so i didn’t feel compelled to see it. And after the first 5 minutes of LA LA land we were both starting to question whether we made a good choice luckily we stuck it out
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Moonlight is dull. I’m not the target audience and it’s well shot but its unbearably ponderous and I love Ali but he’s barely in the film so how that was worth an Oscar escapes me. I saw over 100 films last year and Moonlight is in the fifties somewhere. I was glad I skipped watching the Oscars. They just agitate me.
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Console yourself with the fact that a thousand years from now, if a method still exists to watch films, people will be poring over the great movies of the ancient americans, and no will know that the academy awards even existed.
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True dat
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They can remake LOTR, they can screw up JL, they can give La La Land the award by mistake instead of in actuality, I don’t care, I wake up every morning and I thank God for movies.
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Oh my God! Who are these songwriters and where did they come from? I had given up on leaving theaters humming songs from new musicals, and then I saw La La Land, and it was a frigging movie theater I was humming my way out of. If this is the song they are releasing ahead of time I can’t imagine this is an inappropriate release for Christmas. Nothing gives you faith in a musical like hearing one great song.
I hope this beats B and the B. Not that Mencken is not a genius, but I want some newer talent to shine.
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These guys came in for La La Land with Justin Hurwitz already having scored the songs, they just needed lyrics to fit so it was a unique challenge. This song has been in my head since the first trailer. At least now I have the whole thing. This and Evermore are tied in my head. I will have to see the impact in the film to break the tie.
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So these songwriters did not write the music for La La Land, only the lyrics? Because this melody has elements that are very La La Land-like.
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Correct. Hurwitz wrote the music for the songs because they wanted those themes repeating thoughout the whole score so its a very odd way to get the amazing product they did
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I don’t argue with success. I thought the film was a little overlong and a little thinly plotted (even with traditional stage musicals I prefer ones with bigger, darker themes and weightier plots) but I don’t think I have ever seen a film musical where the songs and music were so perfectly threaded throughout, and felt so organic.
Do you know how Lerner and Lowe wrote their songs? Alan Jay Lerner would write the lyrics first, to the melody of a preexisting song. He would not tell Fredrick Lowe what that song was. Whatever works.
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I do wonder how they’ll deal with the difference in sensibilities about live animal acts, between then and now … it looks like a blast though. 🙂
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By not dealing with it lol. What else can you do and not bum everyone out which is the opposite vibe of this film.
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Heh, heh, heh … ’tis a bit of a conundrum. 🙂
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Oh, they’ll deal with it, probably just with a gentle criticism, but it will be in there. Dumbo is the one to fear. I don’t trust Burton not to show us scenes of animals being tortured. I love him, but he lacks certain filters.
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I dunno, animal torture and this films vibe don’t sync. Ignoring it is their best move. Circuses are dead. They’re not PETA. They don’t need to make a statement
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Animals were not treated nicely in circuses, in fact I’m pretty sure they were put through horrors. I have no tolerance for that. Ask me about my late dog one day. Guy was my brother. But we are going through a very specific period in our culture where they simply cannot make a movie about an old-time circus, and show animal acts, and let it pass without comment. It would be like Wimpy passing up a hamburger, or paying for one.
The comment will be so gentle, to fit the tone of the movie, that it will actually trivialize and minimize the problem, and do the opposite of what was intended, but they will not be able to resist themselves.
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I can’t wait to see this movie. As a ton of good actors / actresses and definitely has the potential to be the next “La La Land-ish” movie.
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This is an original, vibrant, fast paced fantasy musical that raises the bar for the revival of this genre. I loved it.
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Its a ton of fun
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I love this film so much! Published a review on it today and I thought it was spectacular, especially fellow Aussie Hugh Jackman. He is The Greatest Showman.
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Awesome to hear! It’s nice to see him return to what he was doing before Wolverine in his first film post-X-Men, and I did think this was a blast. I think Jackman will always have this in his blood, and it’s hard to imagine many other actors being able to pull off Barnum the way he did. He was indeed the consummate showman. Thanks for the comment!
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I finally got to see it at the weekend. I really enjoyed it, and so did my partner and musicals really aren’t his ‘thing’.
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They weren’t mine either, but between this and La La Land last year, I’m going to have to reevaluate that statement if this continues. Glad you had a good time!
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