You gotta give Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic, the producers of the upcoming 82nd Annual Academy Awards, credit for thinking way outside of the box.

Interviewed Thursday by Teri Gross on NPR’s “Fresh Air,” Shankman was asked how he and Mechanic had set about shaking up the Oscars. The always-candid Shankman revealed that when he and Mechanic first met for lunch, they immediately agreed that the person who should host the show would be none other than Sacha Baron Cohen.

Would Cohen have appeared as himself, the well-educated Brit who was nominated for an Oscar three years ago for writing “Borat” or as one of his comedy alter egos: the hip-hop Ali G (”Booyah!”), Kazakhstan journalist Borat (”Very nice!”) or the ever-fashionable Bruno (”That is such a Samantha thing to say!”).

Unfortunately, we’ll never know. For, Shankman said, just as quickly as they told the Academy of their idea, “the Academy swatted it down. They thought it was too big of a wild card.”