Musical veterans Craig Zadan and Neil Meron re-hired as Academy Awards producers
April 17, 2013 11:05
Interestingly, Oscars organizers announced on Tuesday that the producers of this year's Academy Awards, musical veterans Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, have been re-hired for the 2014 show.
Fact-fully, the pair, who have produced a long list of musical hits including 2002's Oscar-winning film, 'Chicago,' will again be the behind-the-scenes gurus for next year’s show on March 2.
On February 24, this year's show produced a boost in TV ratings, including for the inordinately young demographic, despite criticism of some of 'Family Guy' creator host Seth MacFarlane's less mature jokes.
According to said Hawk Koch, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Craig and Neil have the overpowering support of the Academy's Governors to produce the Oscars again in 2014.
As a matter of fact, in order to establish continuity with this year's enormously successful show, they felt it was important to give these consummate professionals the green light now to begin creating another great evening.
Moreover, Zadan and Meron, whose credits also include hit 2007 film 'Hairspray,' 2011's 'Footloose' as well as multiple TV credits, said that they are very honoured to have been asked to return as Oscar producers for a second year. They continued saying that they look forward to creating a distinctive and entertaining show. As the fact remain, the Oscars show, the climax of Hollywood's annual awards season, has had a few ups and downs in the last few years, hosting and production wise.
As a concluding fact, in 2011 duo Anne Hathaway and James Franco, chosen to draw young TV viewers, were widely panned, while last year veteran host Billy Crystal was drafted in at the last minute after comic Eddie Murphy pulled out amid a gay slur row.
That's indeed a world-class honour for the musical veterans.
(AW:Samrat Biswas)