Gracey to helm Hugh Jackman's Barnum pic

JackmanExclusive: Just days after signing onto direct Disney's revisionist Snow Whitened pic "An Order from the Seven," advertisements helmer and VFX veteran Michael Gracey is becoming mounted on direct Hugh Jackman in twentieth century Fox's P.T. Barnum pic "The Finest Showman on the planet."Jenny Bicks ("Sex and also the City") authored the initial contemporary musical, which Jackman is creating together with his former creating partner John Palermo and Laurence Mark ("Dreamgirls"). Project came into being after Jackman, Mark and Bicks labored together about the 81st Oscars, which Jackman located, Mark professional created and Bicks assisted write.Jackman will have Barnum, a showman having a penchant for hoaxing a naive public who becomes famous for creating the 3-ring circus. Musical also concentrates on his infatuation with Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, a job which has not been cast.Project was introduced in August. 2009 and can likely stay in development some time longer, as Jackman is devoted to filming James Mangold's "The Wolverine" for Fox, and it is likely to topline Tom Hooper's adaptation of "L'ensemble des Miserables" for Universal.Gracey will quickly begin storyboarding Disney's live-action, China-set Snow Whitened epic, which aims to begin production the coming year. Helmer was an animator at Animal Logic ("Happy Ft") before he embarked on the advertisements career which has seen him pointing award-winning spots for Lipton and T-Mobile.Gracey is repped by CAA, Partizan and Hirsch Wallerstein. Contact Shaun Sneider at shaun.sneider@variety.com