HOLLYWOOD, Feb 21, (AFP) - Rags-to-riches drama "Slumdog Millionaire" is the strongest best picture favorite in years while late actor Heath Ledger is all but guaranteed to win a posthumous Oscar at the 81st Academy Awards, bookmakers and pundits said Friday.
With less than 48 hours to go until Sunday's show at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood, India-set feel-good movie "Slumdog" is the overwhelming favorite according to bookmakers William Hill, which have priced the film at 1/10.
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| Slumdog Millionaire" child actor Mohammed Azharuddin Ismail (C) looks on as co-actor Rubina Ali speaks to an unidentified escort before leaving for the airport to catch a flight for the US to attend the Oscars ceremony, in Mumbai on February 20. AFP |
A spokesman for the betting firm said while there had been a burst of activity for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Slumdog" remained the "massive, massive favorite."
"It's always been our theory that at the end of the day Hollywood is about putting bums on seats and that this year, an uplifting feelgood movie like 'Slumdog' would be the clear favorite," spokesman Rupert Adams told AFP.
Ben Eckstein, a betting pundit with Nevada-based America's Line, said the race for best picture was over. "We think that they could put the statue on the chair for Slumdog Millionaire," Eckstein told AFP.
Joining "Slumdog" as an Oscars certainty is "The Dark Knight" star Ledger, set to become the first posthumous winner of an Oscar since Peter Finch for 1976's "Network."
"Heath Ledger is 1 to 40. These are the shortest odds that we ever had," Eckstein said. "There's no chance the others will win. That category is over."
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