Your New Oscar Producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer: A Movieline FAQ

Thanks for everything, Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic. While your stint as this year's Oscarcast producers helped draw a significant ratings surge over 2009, you are being replaced by a couple other adventurous industry veterans: movie producer Bruce Cohen and TV producer Don Mischer. But what does it all mean for you? Let's go to the frequently asked questions and attempt to find out!

Who are these guys?

Cohen's a high-profile film producer who won a Best Picture Oscar in 1999 (with his partner Dan Jinks) for steering American Beauty. He and Cohen were nominated again in 2009 for Milk. Mischer, meanwhile is an old, old school TV guy with 15 Emmys and 10 DGA Awards clogging his mantel. He's produced some of the more memorable TV moments from from the last three decades, from Michael Jackson's moonwalk debut on the Motown 25th Anniversary Special to the opening ceremonies of both Summer and Winter Olympic Games in the States.

The duo first worked together on the 2007 special Movies Rock, but they truly scored with the Academy at last year's inaugural Governors Awards, which by more than one account was a classy throwback evening of Hollywood glamour, power and grace. The Academy is desperate to replicate that sensibility for a wider audience in 2011.

Did anyone see this coming?

Yes, actually: Big props to Oscarphile Steve Pond at The Wrap, who pretty much called this particular shot more than two months ago.

What happened to Shankman and Mechanic?

Thrown out with the set dressing, I'm afraid. I mean, come on: You saw this year's Oscars. Bloated, stringy, misconceived... the duo took the cabaret-style show introduced by 2009 producers Bill Condon and Larry Mark, choked it with interpretive dance, and took away the nominated songs. Were it not for co-hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin the show would have been literally unwatchable. Even despite them, it still kind of was.

But weren't ratings improved in 2010?

Yes -- by 14 percent, in fact, to 41.3 million in the United States alone. But most observers attribute the bump not to the creative touches of the third judge on So You Think You Can Dance and the guy who green-lit Fight Club, but rather to the confluence of nominees like The Blind Side and Avatar (not to mention the other eight Best Picture nominees), the Kathryn Bigelow/Sandra Bullock factors and ZOMG the Twilight presence. OK, maybe not the last part. Well, kind of.

Is Cohen half as good a Twitterer as Shankman?

The evidence to date is inconclusive. Shankman was problematically gabby and notoriously can't spell (or even write sometimes, for that matter). Yet if a certain Bruce Cohen going by "@tola57" is any indication (at right), Shankman might have this advantage irrevocably in his favor.

Isn't this awfully early in the year to announce new Oscar producers?

Yes. Shankman/Mechanic weren't announced until last October, and Condon/Mark were announced in Sept. 2008. No one is even thinking about Oscars yet. Except they are, sort of, raising the next, obvious question:

How does the Oscarcast's potential move to January play into this?

One can only speculate. ML's sister site Deadline sees a vague connection between the early announcement and an earlier Oscars, but the bottom line is that contracting awards season by a month is something that goes beyond a couple hyper-proficient producers. It's a systemic deal, and unless Cohen and Mischer can shepherd hundreds (if not thousands) of lazy, aloof voters through the year-end screening process, it's probably ahead of its time.

What will this change for the Oscarcast?

Look for a bond with tradition. Expect Original Song nominee performances to return, former Acting category winners to once again present this year's honors, and Jack Nicholson in the front row. Mischer and Cohen will play up the legends, much as they did at the hugely gratifying Governors Awards. Gratifying for the legends, that is, not necessarily for you -- though who knows? "We want to work with that mythology and the treasure trove of the show," Cohen told the LAT, while adding: "The idea is to create a show that will appeal to movie lovers of all kinds -- something for the drama people, something for the musical people, something for the tentpole people."

What does this mean for potential hosts?

Great question. Reaction to Martin and Baldwin was fairly split down the middle; many viewers at home saw them as too inside-baseball, which in fact plays to Cohen and Mischer's strengths. They're all brilliant guys who share relatively conservative mandates from the top, particularly amid the more radical changes taking place with nominations and timing. I think Martin and Baldwin are compatible, and as long as they want to stick around, they probably will.