It's hard to imagine Oscar nominations adding even more lucre to "The Dark Knight's" box-office bonanza. The entity that would probably benefit the most from some Ledger fairy dust is the academy itself.
History has shown that Oscar TV viewership is related to the popularity of the nominees, reaching a high of 55.3 million viewers in 1998 when "Titanic" swept the awards. Last year was the smallest audience in Oscar history, with only 32 million viewers tuning in to watch the arty "No Country for Old Men" win top honors. This year, the academy is making a push to broaden the show's appeal by showing snippets of box-office hits during the broadcast, whether nominated or not.
The academy also ended the ban on commercials for upcoming movies, with the hope of creating a Super Bowl-type climate in which splashy ads generate almost as much buzz as the show.
Over the years, a number of actors have been nominated after death, among them Spencer Tracy, Ralph Richardson and James Dean, who was recognized for both "East of Eden" and "Giant." The last actor to be nominated for a posthumous Oscar was Massimo Troisi, who died after the filming of "Il Postino" in 1994. Yet the campaign was different, because Troisi, who had specifically delayed a heart operation in order to complete the film, was unknown to U.S. audiences. "A key part of the publicity campaign was introducing American audiences to Massimo," recalls 42West publicist Cynthia Swartz, who worked on the campaign. "Everything we did was a celebration of what he accomplished."
Clearly, celebration will also be the leitmotif of the Batman filmmakers as they invariably field questions about Ledger during Oscar season. When asked about a possible Oscar for Ledger, director Nolan recently told The Times' Geoff Boucher: "The thing that has always been important to me in light of Heath's death is the responsibility I've felt to his work. . . . It's easy to forget, with everything that has happened, what an enormous challenge it was for Heath to take on this iconic role. He rose to that challenge so admirably that any expression of people being moved or excited by his performance is a wonderful thing."
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rachel.abramowitz@ latimes.com
