Aaron Sorkin Withdraws from Broadway's HOUDINI Due to Scheduling Conflicts

According to Deadline.com, Aaron Sorkin has withdrawn as librettist of the upcoming Broadway production Houdini, starring Hugh Jackman. Sorkin's schedule, including his commitments involving the second season of HBO's "The Newsroom" and adapting Walter Isaacson's book "Steve Jobs" for Sony Pictures, would not allow him time to continue work on the musical.

Read the original report here.

Houdini's producers are in talks to continue development of the show using Sorkin's concepts and other material.

In Houdini, Hugh Jackman will return to Broadway during the 2013/2014 season starring as America's greatest showman. One of the world's most fascinating figures takes center stage in Houdini, an original and contemporary look at the life--and death--of America's first superstar.

Directed by three-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien, Houdini is presented by film and theatre producer Scott Sanders and David Rockwell. Mr. Rockwell will also design the sets for Houdini.

Additional Houdini casting, creative team and design team to be announced at a later date. The show will feature music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz.

Academy-Award winning writer Sorkin graduated from Syracuse University with a B.F.A. in Theatre in 1983. He made his Broadway playwriting debut at the age of 28 with the military courtroom drama, A Few Good Men, for which he received the John Gassner Award as Outstanding New American Playwright. The following year saw his off-Broadway play, Making Movies and in 2007 he returned to Broadway with The Farnsworth Invention, directed by Des McAnuff. Most recently, Mr. Sorkin's film, The Social Network, earned him an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as a Golden Globe, British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), Writers Guild Award and the USC Scripter Award. The film, directed by David Fincher, was named Best Drama at the Golden Globes, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and appeared on over 350 critics' lists of the top ten films of 2010. His film adaptation of A Few Good Men was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and five Golden Globes, including Best Screenplay.

He followed this success with the screenplays for Malice, starring Alec Baldwin and Nicole Kidman, and The American President, starring Michael Douglas and Annette Bening. Mr. Sorkin produced and wrote the television series "Sports Night" for ABC for two years, winning the Humanitas Prize and the Television Critics Association Award. He spent the next four years writing and producing the NBC series "The West Wing," winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series all four years. For his work on "The West Wing," Mr. Sorkin also twice received the Peabody Award and the Humanitas Prize, and three Television Critics Association Awards. He also won a Golden Globe, a Writers Guild Award and three Producers Guild Awards. In 2006, Mr. Sorkin wrote and produced the NBC television series "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." He also wrote the 2007 film Charlie Wilson's War, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julia Roberts.

Mr. Sorkin's latest television series, "The Newsroom," debuted on HBO last summer. He recently adapted Moneyball, directed by Bennett Miller and starring Brad Pitt, for which he won the New York Film Critics Award for Best Screenplay.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride