Glamour bows to grandeur. And old Hollywood makes way for a futuristic flight of fancy that will turn the stage of the Kodak Theatre into a man-made magic trick come Sunday.

The set for the 80th annual Academy Awards will be built around five dramatic columns containing Oscars, each wrapped in delicate layers of gold and silver leaf and rising anywhere from 18 to 25 feet above the royal blue floor.

But they won't stand as frozen sentinels. The Oscars will be crowned by saturn-like rings and be covered with architectural sleeves or tubes that can disappear, as can the oversize statues themselves.

The stage will be anything but static.

"I think it's masculine, I think it has a grandeur. I think it's surprising the different looks it can take. It's just hard to nail down stylistically," says the artist who designed it. "It's probably kind of moderne futuristic."

The set marks the 18th time that Roy Christopher has served as production designer for the Oscar presentation. His previous assignment was two years ago, when he created an homage to classic Hollywood glamour.

"The whole look of the show was based on old movie theaters," Christopher said in a recent call from a quiet office at the Kodak in Hollywood. "We actually used a little theater in my hometown of Fresno, the Tower Theatre, built in the '40s or '50s, as the model for the set.

"People loved it. They identified with it, they knew what it was, it was very curvaceous and glamorous, so that worked really well. This year, all of a sudden you're faced with a blank sheet of paper and you think, well, we can't go there again."

He also couldn't repeat the art moderne retro look he created for the 75th anniversary (the year of "Chicago") or the set for the 77th Oscars ("Million Dollar Baby") featuring a spiral of Oscars and screens that were underfoot and jutted out over the black-tie audience.

Christopher, who has won seven of his nine art direction Emmys for Oscar telecasts, says he played around with lots of ideas and did hundreds of sketches and doodles. Telecast producer Gilbert Cates suggested something futuristic, and Christopher found inspiration in the past, in a print of a grand space by 18th-century Italian artist Piranesi.

"We played with that and giant columns, and then finally it all kind of came together. Classical futuristic, I don't know what to call it," he said, referring to the column components that can fly out, leaving only the floating rings.

"The director looked at it and said, 'I love this, it looks like the movie 'Metropolis.' "

Although the writing of the show was on hold until the strike ended last week, Christopher was told his design would be needed no matter what.

"From day one, the Motion Picture Academy and Gil Cates said, look, 'We're going to do this show in your set no matter what.' So they never said hold back or modify. ...

"In terms of my work and my department's work, we just plunged ahead and did the show we were going to do."

This year will mark the return of host Jon Stewart, who presided over the March 5, 2006, ceremony when "Crash" beat "Brokeback Mountain" to the finish line.

"I absolutely adore Jon Stewart, and he was so appreciative of everyone's work. I've really never worked with anyone who's as much of a gentleman. He comes up after the show -- we're all on stage -- and he throws his arms around me and said, 'Well, you did it,' " Christopher said. "No, I go, you actually did it."

And everyone expects Stewart will do it again. After all, he will be standing on the very stage in Hollywood where Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama gently sparred on Jan. 31.

"He's just an embracing, warm guy and so appreciative of what we all did, so I think there's a level of we can't wait to see him and he brings such goodwill with him," Christopher said.

"Considering he's such an acerbic kind of personality sometimes, he isn't that at all. ... I think this time he'll kick it up even higher, especially with the strike and all these elements."

When Stewart steps out at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, he will be beneath a frosted, lighted oval arch that -- like much of the set -- can change colors throughout the night.

The set represents the work of hundreds of people, from the five who work with Christopher translating his hand-drawn designs into computer renderings to the hundreds of people working at five scenic studios and as part of the stage crew at the theater.

So far, nothing is keeping Christopher awake at night, but he said, "You know, this is all hydraulics, these tubes moving within tubes, and telescoping in and telescoping out and you might have someone standing inside one of the tubes and then it flies out, revealing the person.

"There are all kinds of things, and you think, 'Oh, my God, this has to work, this has to work.' There's no danger involved; it's so over-engineered, but you want it to be cued properly and work properly and work smoothly."

Guaranteed to work smoothly is the quartet of Cates, Christopher, director Louis J. Horvitz and lighting designer Bob Dickinson.

"I always said if Gil, Louis J. and Bob do this show, I would be proud to be on board. We simply connect."

Like Christopher, Cates is a veteran of the show. This will be his 14th time as telecast producer, more than anyone else.

"He is a wonderful leader. When I do the Oscars, it's a very unique situation. I only answer to one man and that's Gil Cates. I don't have to get approval from a committee; he might have to, but I know nothing about it.

"He protects me totally. Once we work out what we're going to do, that is what it is, that is what we stick to, so it gives you great confidence."

Not to mention dazzling designs.