Friday, March 29, 2024

Oscar Heist: Brett Ratner Asked to Produce Academy Awards Show

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This is the best news of the week: Brett Ratner has been asked to produce the Oscar show this year with Don Mischer. Every year a guest producer is brought in to bring extra excitement to the show. Ratner is a showman, and knows how to get an audience. He’s made the “Rush Hour” movies and “X Men: Last Stand”–the latter remains the biggest hi in that franchise. He’s also got one of my favorite films, “Family Man,” on his resume. Ratner’s “Tower Heist” looks to be a huge hit this Christmas, too. What’s interesting too is that Ratner tells me the Academy asked him–it wasn’t like he requested the job. And more intriguing, too, because the new head of the Academy is Dawn Hudson, the brilliant former chief of Film Independent–and the Indie Spirit Awards. So it’s not like she chose Don Roos to produce the Oscars. Good for Hudson. Now the question remains: can Brett get Eddie Murphy and Ben Stiller to co-host? Or Chris Tucker and Mariah Carey? Suddenly, Oscar gets hot, hot, hot.

PS Don’t be surprised if Ratner, an accomplished photographer, winds up shooting all the nominees for the show and publicity.

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
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