With Brett Ratner now set to produce next year's Academy Awards ceremony-- based on his stellar credits like Rush Hour and X-Men: United it seems-- we should know to expect pretty much anything. Ratner is capable of making any number of awful choices in helping the Academy reach out to younger, hipper viewers-- something they try every year and almost always fail in doing. All things considered, the news at Deadline that Ratner wants Eddie Murphy to host next year's Oscars isn't so bad. Murphy and Ratner worked together on the upcoming Tower Heist, which means there's a little bit of cronyism going on, but it could be worse-- he could have asked Rush Hour's Chris Tucker.

There's not yet a deal in place, and the notoriously picky and demanding Murphy could throw up any number of roadblocks between now and the big ceremony on February 26. But when Ratner meets with the Academy on Tuesday to tell them who he wants as a host, he's only going to give them Murphy's name. And Murphy's reps apparently think this is a great idea, a chance to get the comedian back into the spotlight after a string of disappointing movies in the last few years, and coming on the heels of not just the November release of Tower Heist, but the January debut of the long-delayed comedy A Thousand Words. To put it simply, it will be better for his career than the last time he appeared at the awards, when Norbit was nominated for Best Makeup in 2008.

It's hard to remember now, but Murphy spent a lot of years as an electrifying stage presence, whether during his stint on SNL or his legendary standup concert movies like Eddie Murphy Raw. He's made a lot of disappointing career decisions since then, and is better known to kids around the world as the voice of Donkey in the Shrek movies than to younger comedy fans who don't remember his glory days. But it sounds like Ratner and a lot of other people think this is Murphy's chance to come back and do something great-- and as much as I worry we'll get the Meet Dave Murphy instead of the Coming to America one, I think Ratner might be right.

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