If Variety.com Oscar blogger Kris Tapley is right about the top 10 ponies in next year's Oscar derby, the race will be dominated by two studios and their offshoots: Universal/Focus with "Frost/Nixon," "Changeling" and "The Argentine" and Paramount/ Vantage/ DreamWorks with "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Defiance" and "Revolutionary Road." Weinstein Company has two on Kris' list: "The No. 1 Ladies Detectives Agency" and "The Reader." READ MORE

Considering how "Zodiac" director David Fincher and "Jesse James" star Brad Pitt are getting gypped this awards season, it'll be interesting to see if they can rally next year for their collaborative adaptation of the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald short story "Benjamin Button," costarring Cate Blanchett. In the original story, Button is born at age 80 and becomes younger year by year, which causes quirky and sometimes comical problems. Fitzgerald once noted, "This story was inspired by a remark of Mark Twain’s to the effect that it was a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst part at the end." All Oscarologists know that academy voters love roles that show long-range aging. But, hmmmm — what about in reverse? A reader of Jeffrey Wells' Hollywood-Elsewhere.com reports that "Button" is "an outstanding and moving film." READ MORE.

Wouldn't it be terribly ironic if a film adaptation of one of Fitzgerald's prose works sweeps the Oscars someday? The 1974 version of "The Great Gatsby" starring Robert Redford and Mia Farrow won two Oscars (costumes, music score) and deserved more. I loved it, but many film critics didn't, so that means Hollywood still has to prove itself wrong about Scott. When he worked there as a scriptwriter late in life, MGM had no interest in having him adapt his own literary works to the screen. Instead, he was hired to write new things, he was terrible at it and he flopped. Aren't you curious how "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" may have turned out as a movie starring, say, Clark Gable and Bette Davis?

(Photo: Paramount Pictures)