Australian filmmaker Michael Gracey made his film debut in 2017 with Fox’s The Greatest Showman, starring Hugh Jackman, Zac Efron, Michelle Williams, Rebecca Ferguson and Zendaya. When the movie was greenlit, there had not been an original Hollywood movie-musical for over 20 years. The film went on to become one of the highest grossing live-action musicals of all time, garnering 3 Golden Globe nods, a win for Best Original Song and was nominated for an Academy Award. Its original soundtrack went double platinum, and was the highest selling album of 2018.
In 2019, he executive produced Paramount’s Elton John biopic, Rocketman, with Taron Egerton, before directing and producing Amazon’s music documentary, P!nk: All I Know So Far in 2021. Most recently, Gracey wrote, directed and produced Paramount’s Better Man, an original musical biopic about the iconic British artist, Robbie Williams. The film debuted at Telluride and TIFF 2024, where critics have hailed it as “blazingly original” and “electrifyingly demented.” He is also attached to direct Paramount’s musical adaptation of the bestselling book, Nevermoor, and direct a musical based on the life of Luciano Pavarotti for the West End.
Gracey is a master of the set-piece, and has developed a sophisticated workflow which meticulously crafts and refines the spectacle for which he is known. This frees him on set to focus on emotional storytelling. He believes that the mood on set comes through in the final film, and if people are having fun with what they’re doing, then it translates on camera. For him, it all comes down to imagination and heart. “I love the idea that you can look around the world and see the theatre of life,” says Gracey. “See the magical and imaginative happening every day, even in the mundane."