Oscar's Sunday Tune in Early

Shankman said the show will be funny, lively and fun.

“People hate it when I say this," he said, “but I always say this is the best-dressed reality competition show on TV."

The two men joined film academy President Tom Sherak on the red carpet outside the Kodak Theatre for a brief news conference Friday about the big show.

Dismissing a gloomy weather forecast, Sherak said definitively that it will not rain at Oscar time. Mechanic quipped that it would “rain humor." And Shankman said that when you produce the Oscars, there's no one you can't call, so “I just called God."

“Like everything in Hollywood, it's a negotiation," he said.

The show will be heavy on humor, thanks to the hosting duo of Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, Mechanic said, adding that the Oscar show hasn't had two hosts since 1928.