Super-producer Pharell Williams is stepping out of the studio and into unchartered territory. The good folks in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — who have already suffered for rash choices this year, seeing orchestrators Brett Rattner and Eddie Murphy implode — have tapped him, along with composer Hans Zimmer, to serve as consultants for the 84th annual Academy Awards ceremony next year.
It's a surpising odd-couple pairing of two talented musicians. Williams, more commonly known as simply Pharrell, has garnerned ten Grammy nods (and three wins) for his myriad collaborations with pop and hip-hop superstars (including Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, and Snoop Dogg) rather than veteran composers. With this as his first foray into the coveted awards ceremony, he'll likely be taking his cues from Zimmer, the go-to Hollywood composer for big-budget movies from "The Da Vinci Code" to "The Lion King," the latter of which won him a golden statue in 1995.
Despite his familiarity with the ceremony, it's also odd that Zimmer will be taking on this role — after scoring more than 100 films, eight of which have been nominated for Academy Awards, he had announced earlier this year he would not be participating in the next awards race. “I actually think the Academy is really important, but if you’re in the race you can’t really observe,” he told the Hollywood Observer. “I just wanted to take a step back and say ‘I’m not in the race.’” It looks like he just couldn't stay away. He is currently at work on the latest installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman series, “Dark Knight Rises.”
The 84th Annual Academy Awards will air February 26 on ABC.