About a month after we got the producer pot stirring in terms of who would be ideal for this year's Oscar telecast, the Academy has again chosen for style over substance. Not that that's a terribly bad thing, and I personally consider this recent news rather fortunate. Neil Moren and Craig Zadan, most popularly known for producing the original 1984 "Footloose", Adam Shankman's "Hairspray", and the NBC hit "Smash", are actually quite ideal choices to helm this year's Oscar telecast. The Academy has always had a tendency to hire teams known for a certain extravagance, given the 2009 telecast produced by Bill Condon of "Dreamgirls" fame was met with an interesting amount of glee.
The instinct is to shrug when a group of musical producers are put on a show meant to celebrate film, but the telecast has, in recent years, been rather deprived of razzle-dazzle. The most current memory of such a feeling came with the 2010 show, when a group of dancers were choreographed to the original score nominees. I think that knowledge of stage presence and theatrical excitement will fit the telecast like a glove, and perhaps give us the most entertaining show since 2008. Now the only question that remains is who will host the event. Your guess is as good as mine, but given the announcement, I'd place hard money on Daniel Radcliffe. Honestly, how would that not be a ridiculously fun show?
