Aaron Sorkin writing the Broadway Houdini musical

EW.com is reporting that Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network) has come on board to write the Broadway Houdini musical set to star Hugh Jackman with a score by Danny Elfman. He appears to have replaced Kurt Andersen who had been listed as the writer when news of the project was first announced in 2008.

EW reports that Elfman spent the last week in New York meeting with Sorkin, Director Jack O’Brien, lyricist Glenn Slater, and a producer to discuss the show. “Right now Aaron Sorkin is writing,” says the composer. “He’s writing away, and we all have high hopes that Aaron’s going to come through and do some good stuff.”

Sorkin has Broadway experience: His A Few Good Men was a Broadway play before it was the Jack Nicholson–Tom Cruise movie, and his The Farnsworth Invention was staged there from late 2007 to early 2008.

Next up is a first reading of the script, scheduled for January. After that, Elfman estimates that the show could open in early 2012.

“I’m just trying to go with it and learn,” says Elfman. “Hopefully [the show] will happen, but I know that there are so many things that need to still happen, and reasons why it may or may not. I just try to take an attitude of, ‘If it happens, great, and if it doesn’t, I’ll have learned what it’s like working on a Broadway musical.’”