Fox 2000 has won the rights to a new movie musical about fairy tale scribe Hans Christian Andersen, featuring an original score by Wicked's Stephen Schwartz.
According to Deadline, David Magee (Life of Pi, Mary Poppins Returns) will pen the script to the musical fantasy. Composer-lyricist Schwartz will also produce alongside Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (both no strangers to bringing musicals to the screen); Magee and Mark Nicholson will serve as executive producers.
Golden Globe nominee Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver) is expected to be part of the film, which follows Andersen—the creator of such stories as The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes, and The Ugly Duckling—as a young man who is transported into his own fantasy world.
The film will be fast-tracked for a release over the holidays.
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Schwartz wrote the scores for Broadway's Pippin, Godspell, The Magic Show, Working, and Wicked as well as the lyrics to Rags. The Oscar winner has previously written a musical concerning Andersen: My Fairytale, which debuted in Denmark in 2005 as part of the bi-centennial celebration of the fairy-tale writer. The musical made its American premiere at California's PCPA Theaterfest in 2011.
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