HOLLYWOOD – As if Chris Rock were not enough, this year’s Oscar ceremony is shaping up to be hip-hop loose and in-your-face. Or at least as hip-hop loose and in-your-face as a show that revolves around a bunch of film types in evening dress getting awards and making speeches can be.
Ever since the announcement that Rock would host the 77th Academy Awards, the buzz has been as much about how the high-intensity, often blasphemous comic will fit into a traditional ceremony as it has in predicting the winners.
To which producer Gil Cates replies: Who said it would be a traditional Oscar ceremony?
As Cates hinted at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ nominees luncheon Monday, this year’s show will be as different in structure from past shows as Rock’s style is from previous hosts.
Cates is breaking open the show. Not only will some awards be announced with the nominees present on stage, others will be presented to winners still seated in the audience. Cates said his goal is to get all nominees on television.
“The concept this year is to minimize the line between people on stage and in the audience,” he said.
Rock will also be “recognizing” certain members of the audience, Cates said, in the style of “The Ed Sullivan Show.”
“Chris is an up-front, right-at-you kind of guy,” Cates said, “so we needed to format the show to accommodate that.”
The set itself, he said, will blur the line between on-stage and off, giving the show a more interactive feel. Director Louis J. Horvitz said the set will jut into the audience from center stage and lead “like the yellow brick road” to the gondola that hangs from the center of the ceiling at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre, home to the Feb. 27 Oscar telecast.
The style shake-up is also an effort to make the television audience feel an even bigger part of the show and to spark greater audience interest. Ratings have been stagnant in recent years. The show will be broadcast live on ABC.
The format changes match the attitude shift Rock has brought to the proceedings. He has resolutely refused to take any of the hoopla too seriously, trashing nominated movies in the media, talking up his favorite nominees, and generally reminding everyone that in the comedy business nothing is sacred, including the Oscars.
“My job is to make a lot of people laugh,” he said. “It will be great if the people in the room laugh, but I am doing a television show. I am aiming my jokes at all the people who aren’t in the room.”
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