Crystal is now at work on Monsters University, the prequel to the Pixar hit Monsters Inc., and he is ramping up plans to make a film out of his Tony-winning one-man play 700 Sundays. But he said at the American Cinematheque screening on Friday night that his appearance last year on the Oscars stirred his desire to return as host.
"I came out last year as a surprise. It was a last-minute decision," Crystal explained to the sold-out audience Friday. "They had called and said would you do this thing and honor Bob Hope and that was a kind of cool thing to do. I said OK. I did it, and people wanted to see me, they stood up, and I couldn't talk for about a minute [while waiting out the ovation]. And, um, I got a little itchy. So we'll see what happens. I can't promise anything."
After robust cheers and applause from the Santa Monica crowd, Crystal elaborated on the stress and pleasures of the one-of-a-kind Oscars gig.
"I so appreciate that you like when we do it," he said. "And I had a good time doing them. I did eight of them. And it takes a long time. I sort of stopped doing it - I would do it in patches - and then fortunately I was doing other things that I wanted to do. [It takes a long time] in order to do the things we did - and [those things] change the way a host was working on the show. We started doing the medley with Mark [Shaiman], and then those got really funny. Then we entered the films, you know, cutting into the nominated movies, and that started taking a really long time. I was working four or five months just on the Oscars."
The 84th Academy Awards will be broadcast live by ABC on Feb. 26 from the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood. Brett Ratner and Don Mischer will produce the show.
