Although the Hugh Jackman vehicle The Greatest Showman didn’t sit well with critics, it performed well enough at the box office that Fox is looking to try again by bringing another musical to the big screen – and its next story has a very weird, fantastical twist.
The studio is looking to cast Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver) as the legendary Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, famous for his fairy tales like The Princess and the Pea and The Little Mermaid. But instead of retelling a fanciful version of Andersen’s life as an author, the movie-musical will see Andersen trapped in his own imagination, figuratively imprisoned in the worlds of his most famous fairytales. It’s based on a script from Mary Poppins Returns writer David Magee, with music written by Wicked‘s Stephen Schwartz.
So at least the premise is a bit more fantastically out there than Greatest Showman, but we’ll have to wait and see how weird Fox’s next musical actually gets. We’re picturing Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters and The Brothers Grimm meets Frozen. That’s probably close, right?