Academy Awards: "It's Like Having an Acid Trip!" Say New Producers

Chicago and Smash bosses Craig Zadan and Neil Meron take over Hollywood's biggest night of the year

Forget Billy Crystal, Hugh Jackman and Whoopi Goldberg.

Could the newly minted producers of the Oscars, Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, try for a hologram host?

The producing team—best known for Chicago, Hairspray and TV's Smash—tell me Johnny Carson was their favorite host.

"He was the greatest," Meron said earlier today shortly after it was announced they'd be producing the 85th Academy Awards. "He was the king."

Zadan laughed, "You're now going to ask if we can get Johnny Carson—no, we cannot!"

Well, Meron cracked, "They got Tupac Shakur for a concert, didn't they?"

Kidding aside, the duo insists nothing has been decided about the big night.

"Everybody wants to know what are we going to do, who is going to host it and all that and we've only had the job for two days," Zadan said. "We don't want to not answer the questions, but we don't have the answers to the questions because we haven't really done the work yet."

It's probably safe to assume song and dance will be part of the big night because of their musical backgrounds.

"We're hoping to put our mark on the show like we do with our Broadway shows, movies and TV series," Zadan said. "We're hoping that it turns out to be something the audience loves and is entertained by."

The stress and worries of putting on the Oscars hasn't set in…yet. "It's so fresh that there hasn't even been time to get nervous," Meron said. "Right now, I think both of us feel more honored than nervous…It's deeply emotional."

And totally "surreal," Zadan said.

"It's like having an acid trip," he said. "It's like, 'Is this really happening?'"

It certainly is. Good luck, guys!