Twentieth Century Fox said that Jackman will star in The Greatest Showman On Earth, but the studio has not set a start date for production for the film about the 19th century travelling circus promoter. Jackman told Reuters in April that he wanted to star in a movie musical, a genre that hit its peak in 1930s Hollywood and has surfaced only sporadically in recent years’ movies like Hairspray and Mamma Mia!
While he is best known for playing superhero Wolverine in the X-Men movies, Jackman starred in a 1999 television movie version of the stage musical Oklahoma! He won a Tony, Broadway’s highest honor, in 2004 for his role in musical The Boy From Oz and his turn hosting the Tony Awards helped convince Oscar organisers to hire him as host of this year’s Hollywood awards show.
The actor was the first non-comedian to host the Oscars in more than two decades.
