THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

[jo]

It's not Radio City Music Hall, Mr. Jackman

[jo]

From Fandango's Managing Editor --

From NerdReactor's Editor --

In response to above tweet --

[jo]

Wolverine fans are rejoicing

[jo]

[jo]

Anne Thompson of Indiewire confirms that FOX put on the best show in town!


www.indiewire.com/2017/03/greatest-showman-alien-covenant-planet-of-the-apes-twentieth-century-fox-cinemacon-2017-1201798895/

With ‘Greatest Showman,’ ‘Alien: Covenant,’ and ‘Apes,’ Twentieth Century Fox Puts On the Best Show of CinemaCon 2017

Hugh Jackman brought down the house with his preview of "The Greatest Showman," along with "Alien: Covenant" and "War For the Planet of the Apes."

Anne Thompson
2 hours ago
@akstanwyck


Best In Show for CinemaCon 2017 goes to Twentieth Century Fox, which closed out its presentation with a full-throttle Hugh Jackman seduction in honor of his P.T. Barnum biopic, “The Greatest Showman,” which will be released Christmas Day.

Jackman turned on his Broadway charm for the exhibitors, walking them through the passion-project original musical directed by newcomer Michael Gracey. There was extended footage from the film (complete with music by Oscar-winning “La La Land” lyricists Justin Paul and Benj Pasek), which stars Jackman as Barnum, Michelle Williams as Barnum’s rags-to-riches wife, and Zac Efron as an acrobat who soars through the air with the greatest of ease. And then there were the audience members/Fox employees who brought it home by singing and dancing in the aisles.



Chris Aronson and dancers at Fox CinemaCon presentation
Charbonneau/REX/Shutterstock


It was nice to see that even $4 billion in global box office doesn’t mean resting on your laurels. Commandeering the show — and the studio — were chairman Stacey Snider with her lieutenants — production president Emma Watts, Fox 2000’s Elizabeth Gabler, and Fox Animation Studio’s Vanessa Morrison, with distribution chief Chris Aronson...




Hugh Jackman at the Fox presentation, CinemaCon
Latour/Variety/REX/Shutterstock

Please check out the complete article from the link.

[jo]

[jo]

A performing arts producer tweets --

Hope all these tweets are the start of early buzz for the movie!

[jo]

An online reaction to the presentation by Hugh --

She calls the title THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH -- but that doesn't matter because THE GREATEST SHOWMAN could very well turn out to be that grand title in 2017. " Pure Oscar bait" -- her one liner response!

[jo]

[hughmanity]

This idea of him competing with DDL again childishly annoys the you- know -what out of me!  So glad to be a part of this forum with people who understand!

Mar 30, 2017 9:44:14 GMT -5 jo said:

Does lightning strike twice?!!

Can you believe this ??!!!

*wolverine snikt icon*

Arghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!


Does it have to be released on the same day ?!! Or even at around the same time ?>

Well, at least Barnum and what he represented was more well-known than the fashion designer that DDL is supposed to portray!


Jo

[jo]

Official synopsis from FOX --

[jo]

Another film reporter reacts to the teaser/trailer --

[jo]

The USA TODAY gives a full account of how THE GREATEST SHOWMAN shows his wares

Get ready: Hugh Jackman's P.T. Barnum musical might be the new 'La La Land'

Bryan Alexander , USA TODAY 9:08 p.m. ET March 30, 2017



(Photo: Chris Pizzello, Invision via AP)


LAS VEGAS — It was highly appropriate that Hugh Jackman introduced The World's Greatest Showman at CinemaCon on Thursday.

The singing and dancing Oscar-nominated, Tony-winning actor wowed the annual convention of theater owners with a speech before introducing a sneak peek of his musical film inspired by the life of P.T. Barnum (in theaters Dec. 25), founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Based on the footage shown at CinemaCon, the annual convention of theater owners, Showman should fill the holiday season with the ebullient musical joy of La La Land with a dash of Moulin Rouge.


The La La Land songwriting duo, Academy Award winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, wrote songs for the movie, Jackman noted proudly. The Logan star sounded like Barnum himself as he set up the clip from the film, which has been seven years in the making, directed by Michael Gracey (who wasn't in attendance because he's tied up editing the movie).

"It’s all about taking risks. Logan was a risk," said Jackman of the R-rated conclusion to his role as Wolverine, which has made more than $500 million worldwide. "That is what is going to propel this business."
He said "big name actresses, I am not going to say who" had been gunning for one of the more sensational Showman roles, the Bearded Lady.


Hugh Jackman, star of 'The Greatest Showman,' discusses the film during the 20th Century Fox presentation at CinemaCon 2017. (Photo: Chris Pizzello, Invision via AP)

But after giving a tear-filled final song audition, newcomer Keala Settle nabbed the role. Jackman believes she'll be a big star. "Remember that name," he told the crowd.

The clip follows Barnum after he's laid off from a desk job, sparking his interest in show business.  The footage even has him coming up with the term "show business" as he tries to get an acrobat (Zac Efron) to join his show. There's singing and dancing, the Bearded Lady strikingly front and center. Zendaya had a screen moment swinging on a trapeze.

"All the main actors have a very big moment," said Jackman. "We have Michelle Williams and I ballroom dancing on a rooftop. Zac and I tap dancing on tabletops. We have Zendaya and Zac flying through the air on trapeze rigs. P.T. Barnum, you know what he said, 'Life is what you choose to make it.' "


Hugh Jackman hosts the 68th annual Tony Awards in 2014. (Photo: Evan Agostini, Invision via AP)


The Showman presentation ended with the rousing song Come Alive. During the number, real dancers hit the CinemaCon stage and celebratory balloons dropped from the ceiling.

Jackman was in true entertainer mode, pointing out that his mother, Grace McNeil, was in the audience. He said he had to give her a shout-out, "otherwise she'll start heckling me."

He also told a tale about being a newcomer at the gathering in Las Vegas and being lined up to go onstage between Sylvester Stallone and Clint Eastwood. Young Jackman took a moment to gush to his idol Eastwood.
"(Eastwood) said one thing to me:  'You're holding up the line, kid.'  I looked back, Stallone is 50 yards ahead on the stage," said Jackman. "That was 17 years ago."

[jo]

[jo]

Even AICN ( Ain't It Cool News) thinks THE GREATEST SHOWMAN is pretty cool!

www.aintitcool.com/node/77536?utm_source=full-feed&utm_medium=feed&utm_term=coolnews&utm_campaign=1310_RSS

CinemaCon 2017: Quint sees a buncha cool shit at Fox's panel! KINGSMAN 2! ALIEN: COVENANT! THE GREATEST SHOWMAN! MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS!
Published at: March 30, 2017, 8:35 p.m. CST by quint

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a rundown of the big Fox CinemaCon panel. They showed a bunch of stuff, some I don't give a shit about (like the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid) and some I was already foaming at the mouth about. Let's start with one of the titles I was most excited to see something new on...





THE GREATEST SHOWMAN

The show closed with Hugh Jackman coming out to get theater owners excited about his big PT Barnum movie musical, The Greatest Showman.

With original music by the guys behind La La Land, this movie follows PT Barnum as he leaves his bean-counting job for a life dedicated to showmanship. It's still early days (I think the movie's still shooting), but they cut together a trailer and it looked big and sweeping and filled with singing, dancing and a ton of theatricality.

The movie stars Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron, Zendaya and a Broadway star named Keala Settle who plays The Bearded Woman and is the one that Jackman kept gushing over. Apparently she has been helping with the workshopping of this over the last 7 years, knowing full well that the movie would probably land a famous actress in this juicy part. He said at the last workshop Fox head honcho Stacey Snyder was there and saw her perform a number called This Is Me and immediately after it was over Stacey hugged Keala and told her “Young lady, you just booked your first major motion picture.”

I'm a sucker for a big movie musical, so this one looked super great to me. I'm very happy to see musicals coming back in a big way.

If Keala gets some awards glory -- hey, I called it here, first

I posted this before the CinemaCon, while commenting on the first Oscar projections from Clayton Davis's site through his guest Contributor Karen Peterson --

Who might also be a dark horse for supporting -- maybe Keala Settle who plays The Bearded Lady and gets to sing the song that Hugh introduced in his Oz concert, THIS IS ME! Also, there was a report that Keala received flowers from the producers for her inspired performance the previous day, presumably for THIS IS ME. THIS IS ME is the song attributed to the so-called circus freaks, which could have interesting human interest stories!

Jo

[mamaleh]

As I'd written about four years ago (including on this forum, I think), she really stole HANDS ON A HARDBODY. Not surprised she's touted to emerge a star from this. I hope it happens for her.

Ellen

[jo]

Yes, I remember asking you who Keala was, because her name has been mentioned by Hugh. Remember the first workshops reported - with Sutton Foster and Aaron Tveit?


And remember how she posted this, a surprise from the producers to thank her for her inspiring performance while filming presumably THIS IS ME ?

preprod.instagram.com/p/BPK09tTg8cw/?taken-by=kealasettle


Jo

[jo]

Feb 12, 2016 1:54:19 GMT -5 jo said:

With your permission, Ellen -- I dug this up from discussions on THE RIVER :

Frances McDormand was at the show, too, as was a giggly Keala Settle, a Bway actress I recognized (HANDS ON A HARDBODY, current LES MIZ). After the show, Hugh said he recently did a workshop with her of GREATEST SHOWMAN ON EARTH in which she played the Bearded Lady. We agreed how ebullient and fun she is. (I didn't realize movies held "workshops.")

Ellen

Jo

The release date is still a long way to go, but let's hope her performance will delight new audiences then.


Jo

[jo]

And someone has tweeted her about the CinemaCon mention --

[jo]

[jo]

From one of the Visual Effects Crew --

Brandon Endy
14 hrs ·
We aren't done filming yet, but the hype train has begun!!

[jo]

I didn't catch this previously (the report of THE WRAP) --

Seven years in the making, and five consecutive musical workshops later, Hugh Jackman looks like he has a bona fide hit with “The Greatest Showman.”

We only knew of 2 workshops -- when someone posted the workshop with Aaron Tveit and Sutton Foster...and the final one in February 2016. It was a very wise move on the part of Hugh to choose actors from musical theatre to test the evolving musical score with. With his final choice of Pasek &Paul as sole composers, it also opened up links with actors with whom Benj and Justin have worked with in the past. That photo from February 2016 included some very good musical theatre talents ( others in the group not in the photo included people like Jeremy Jordan, Andrew Keenan Bolger, etc). This practice very much followed what Tom Hooper ( with the help of Cameron Mckintosh, of course) did for Les Miserables where he drew from the West End for featured and less prominent roles, thus getting actors with strong talent and experience. It also helped a lot that Hugh is part of the Broadway community as well as having worked a year in the West End community, to help prepare for his first movie musical.

If the movie musical genre continues to thrive, there will probably be more fusing of triple threat talents from both sides of the performing arts ( as Hugh says -- "people who go both ways " ).

As a possibility in the future, I could see the casting of Keala in the a movie remake of SOUTH PACIFIC in the role of Bloody Mary ( who gets to sing the ethereal Bali Ha'i). And she even comes from Hawaii -- what more perfect matching could there be!

Hugh can be Emile de Becque...Michelle can be Nellie, Zac can be Lt. Cable, and Zendaya can be Liat! What about Rebecca - she can be Anna in a remake of The King and I...and I insist that Hugh can be a very good King! And Keala can be Madame Thiang.

I would like to see the artistic divide between film and stage actors banish or be minimized, if their own versatility will allow performing in both mediums.

Jo

[jo]

We may not like the scripts penned by the Daily Mail -- but their Hugh photos are usually gorgeous!

www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4367198/Hugh-Jackman-audition-Greatest-Showman.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490



Check out the rest from the link.

[jo]

The Hollywood Reporter identifies the 5 most important developments in the movie world taken from this year's CinemaCon.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/5-takeaways-cinemacon-990310

Included among them --

3. Possible Awards Contenders Make Their Debuts


The studio presentations weren't just focused on the big tentpoles, either. Sprinkled among them were a handful of films that have the makings of awards contenders.

Paramount had some of the the most-well received: Alexander Payne's sci-fi story Downsizing (Dec. 22) that sees Matt Damon enlist in a program that shrinks people down so they can live a luxurious life for much less cost; George Clooney's Coen-Brothers-scripted Suburbicon (Nov. 3) starring Damon and Julianne Moore; and Annihilation, from Ex Machina director Alex Garland. The latter does not yet have an official release date.

Warner Bros.' latest project from Christopher Nolan, the war epic Dunkirk, (July 21) had sweeping and intense footage that showed off its scope and ambition, while Fox debuted a first-look at The Greatest Showman (Dec. 25), a musical starring Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams that includes original songs from the Oscar-winning La La Land lyricists Pasek & Paul. And Focus stirred the crowd with a first-look at Gary Oldman's stunning transformation to play Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour (Nov. 24) as well as Judi Dench's notable work as Queen Victoria in Stephen Frears’ Victoria And Abdul (Sept. 22).

The presentations also revealed some crafts contenders. Notably, the moody Blade Runner 2049 footage was lensed by acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins, who has been nominated for an Oscar 13 times and is still seeking his first win. Meanwhile, Fox’s Emma Watts gave a shout out to VFX house Weta as she introduced the new War for the Planet of the Apes (July 14) footage, which included an emotive performance capture scene that makes it hard to imagine it won’t be a contender in the visual effects competition. The previous two films in the trilogy were nominated in the VFX category...

I honestly believe that the annual awards are more political than they are artistic in nature! It is important that buzz is established early on, sustained during the year as more movies are released, and heightened to fever pitch as the year ends! There are other films which may deserve equal artistic recognition but do not get noticed, especially if media buzz is not developed. Many awards watch and prediction sites are usually influenced by what current buzz is!  Strong ratings do help but the extra push comes from the  media buzz that surrounds the artistic product!   In a sense, sad to say, one has to play the game to get strong notice! It is fortunate that an event like CinemaCon occurs early during the year  ( but not too early), that favorite films are aired, even if only through  footages.

THE GREATEST SHOWMAN now has an auspicious beginning in its march towards potential awards glory. The airing of a teaser ( likely not the final first teaser/trailer that we will see) focused towards the audience in a  convention of theater distributors was tremendously aided by the presence of a master host! Someone who was not just a masterful ( and seductive -- as noted by Anne Thompson!) OSCARs and TONYs host but who is a true entertainer, as evidenced in his Broadway shows! That probably gave THE GREATEST SHOWMAN an extra and strong advantage over other movies being pitched for awards glory!

It will also be helped by the attention it obtained early on and presumably sustained when it is time to deliver at the box office. Reports on the movie have been cited not just in film-related media and trade paper ( such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter) but also in mainstream media ( such as USA TODAY) and even in terms of international coverage (it was picked up by Associated Press). A movie that does well not just with the ratings but also at the box office has a good chance of awards recognition even more!

Let's hope our film candidate delivers ... and the buzz and respect are earned when it is released!


Jo

[jo]

Take a look -- before it is taken down!