Movie Musical THE GREATEST SHOWMAN ON EARTH with Hugh Jackman to Begin Shooting Next Summer?

Hugh Jackman may finally be bringing PT Barnum to the big screen.

According to Deadline, Fox is considering a Summer 2015 start date for its long-gestating original movie musical THE GREATEST SHOWMAN ON EARTH, starring Jackman and chronicling the true-life story of Barnum.

Written by DREAMGIRLS' Bill Condon, whose revised SIDE SHOW opens on Broadway tonight, and directed by Michael Gracie, the film will "tell the story of Barnum's invention of show business, and his ultimate invention of the three-ring circus." Benj Pasek and Justin Paul will pen the songs.

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN ON EARTH is slated to be the first true original live-action movie musical Hollywood has rolled out in over twenty years.

Jackman, currently starring in THE RIVER on Broadway, is an Academy Award®-nominated, Golden Globe and Tony Award-winning actor. The Australian native was most recently on Broadway in his one-man show Hugh Jackman - Back on Broadway in the fall of 2011.

Jackman's dedication to the Broadway community was feted at the 2012 Tony Awards, where he received a Special Award from the Tony Awards Administration Committee, recognizing his accomplishments as a performer and humanitarian. He previously starred on Broadway in Keith Huff's play, A Steady Rain, opposite Daniel Craig, and as 1970s singer-songwriter Peter Allen inThe Boy From Oz, for which he received the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical as well as Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World Awards. Additional theater: Carousel at Carnegie Hall, Oklahoma! at the National Theatre in London (Olivier nomination), Sunset Boulevard(MO Award, Australia's Tony Award) and Disney's Beauty and the Beast (MO Award nomination).

Jackman made his first major U.S. film appearance as Wolverine in the first installment of the X-Men series, a role he reprised in the enormously successful X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand in 2006, as well as X-Men Origins: Wolverine in 2009 and in The Wolverine in 2013. Jackman reunited with the X-men team for X-Men: Days of Future Past. Other recent film roles: Warner Brothers' Prisoners, Jean Valjean in the film adaptation of Les Miserables, for which he earned a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical, and an Academy Award nomination. Additionally, Jackman has starred in Shawn Levy's Real Steel, Baz Luhrmann's Australia, Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain, Christopher Nolan's The Prestige and Woody Allen's Scoop. He lent his voice to the animated features Rise of the Guardians,Happy Feet and Flushed Away. Other films in which he has had leading roles include Deception, Someone Like You, Swordfish, Van Helsing and Kate and Leopold, for which he received a 2002 Golden Globe nomination.

On February 22, 2009, Jackman hosted the 81st annual Academy Awards. This wasn't Jackman's first foray into awards show hosting. He previously served as host of the Tony Awards three years in a row from 2003-2005, earning an Emmy Award® for his 2004 duties at the 58th annual ceremony, and an Emmy nomination for his 2005 appearance at the 59th annual ceremony.