First Official Poster For Into The Woods; Meryl Front and Center

Disney's "Into the Woods" is largely a player in the Oscar race simply because of actress Meryl Streep, who plays the largely coveted role of The Witch in Rob Marshall's adaptation. The role has been played by veteran musical theater actresses Bernedette Peters and Vanessa Williams in the past on Broadway, so obviously Disney needed a huge name to put in the marquee role.

Though Meryl was nominated for a Golden Globe for her last musical project ("Momma Mia"), her performance outside of that lone nomination wasn't warmly embraced (the Globes nominate her more often than the Oscars do; she has a record 28 nominations). It's an easy call now to predict that she'll have 29 by the end of this year when the nominations are announced, but what is going on with Woods' Oscar chances?

By placing Meryl so heavily front and center in the film's marketing, Disney is clearly banking not only on drawing die hard Meryl fans, but awards chatter; there's no other explanation. When you have Meryl Streep in your film, slated for a winter release, there's no other conclusion one could draw from that.

The chances of her being nominated for this performance are up in the air; all we have to go on is the cryptic teaser trailer that came out a few months ago. I'm currently predicting her and Anna Kendrick (who plays Cinderella in the film) in Supporting Actress, though a lot of others are predicting Emily Blunt, who has the meatiest role to work with.

Until the film screens or we get a new trailer, Into the Woods remains an Oscar mystery. "Les Miserables" was arguably an awards success (it won 3 Oscars including S. Actress for Anne Hathaway), so the musical element of the film shouldn't bar it from competing successfully. Plus, Rob Marshall did direct "Chicago" to a Best Picture win...

In any event, here's the poster