81st Annual, New and Improved Academy Awards

Producer Laurence Mark(Dreamgirls, I Robot, etc) and writer/director Bill Condon (creator of Dreamgirls) have taken upon themselves to produce this years Oscars, with the goal to present a new and improved Acedemy Award Oscars, and re-establish it as an event worth watching this year.
Of course, as each year, the 81st Academy Award Oscars will be held at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, on February 22nd, and it will air live on ABC.

Most of the TV viewers have slipped away from watching the Oscars in the previous years due to the tremendous amount of repetition in its 3 hour ceremonial performance, thus with today’s technology no one really has time to watch a show for 3 hours just to discover the film winners of the previous year.
Why all that trouble when you can log in online and find everything out in just a matter of minutes.

Indeed, being the executive producers of this years Oscars, this is exactly Condon’s and Laurence’s prerogative; To bring back TV viewers, and surprise them with actual 3 hour enjoyment; a party; bringing a unique perspective to the Oscars, rather than the expectancy of repetition from the previous years.
So, they are making a few changes, although sounding impossible, they are willing to give it a go.

Knowing that something new and fresh is cooking behind the minds of these talented filmmakers, does it make you intrigued to announce your Sunday three weeks from today, clutched to your sofa at 8pm?

So, what are these supposed changes that would help raise the TV-viewers population?

First and foremost, Mark and Condon are reshaping the standards of Oscars by cutting out the long opening monologues, the abundance of canned segments, endless movie clips, and the embarrassing interruptions of impassioned speeches.

When it comes to entertaining the masses, it doesn’t really matter what’s on the ballot-Mark says.

Their primary objective is to celebrate the films made in 2008. In other words, Mark and Condon are focusing on the more crucial parts of the Academy in terms of honoring the best movies.

This year’s Awards are blessed with great casting in its films, thus it should not be too difficult to throw the party of a show Mark and Condon have had in mind. This exludes the extravagant decor of exceptionally large Oscar statues all over the stage, indeed Condon aims for the comfort and coziness.

We have enough great material to attract a crowd- Condon affirms.
They did provide us with lots of movie stars-Mark adds.

In order to provide a 3hr long party to attract viewers, Mark and Condon rely on few differences from the other Oscars, such is the secrecy of award/nomination presenters, followed by a hint that presenters are those who participated in a film production within the year 2008. This is not to say that viewers would automatically latch on to their screen for this specific mystery, however.
Further, Condon finds that it is ungracious to mark a long winded winner speech by the flawless orchestra music, thus they will try their best to aid award winners to near their speech to an end in a different manner. Although, the 45 second speech rule still holds.

Winners, please don’t plead Gratitude to your doorman and dogs!

As to all typical Academy traditions, such as the “In memory of… ” section, Mark and Condon, although cannot control their live audience, are going to attempt cutting out applause for the TV, that usually comes off as the “favorite actor that passed, auction.

The best song category this year is dropped down to 3 nominations, thus the excellent signal for bathroom breaks will be shortened by a few.

In the previous years, academy awards were hosted by comedians such as last year’s Jon Stewart, and the previous Ellen Degeneres, however, 81st Oscar show producers feel a bit boisterous about such idea, thus their choice for a host is gonna be Hugh Jackman, our favorite wolverine from the X-Men trilogy.

“He can sing, dance, and looks great in a tuxedo”,-Condon announces. He did an excellent job as the host of the Tony Awards, thus would not be too unfamiliar for him.

Both of the producers believe in trial and error logic, therefore they find that mistakes are good in this case.
They feel that most years the Academy relied on pre-recorded material, so, this time around a bit spontaneity will be encouraged.
Mark and Condon are hyped for this project as first time producers of the Academy. They find that they are bringing new light to this entertaiment and can only hope for the best.
However, the expected no-shows this year are followed by recently passed Heath Ledger, which is to be expected to be a definite win for supporting role in “The Dark Knight”, that has 10 nominations so far.
Clint Eastwood’s nomination of an acting role in the film “Gran Torino”.

And for all else, don’t surprise us by not showing up. Why should we the viewers watch, if you couldn’t make it to ‘your’ career celebration?

For articles related to this years’ in-depth nominations read this.

A Word from the president of the Academy Sid Ganis