The Red Carpet at the Kodak Theater hasn’t even been rolled up, and Tinseltown is already talking about next year’s Oscar race.
Will Jeff Bridges and George Clooney be squaring off for Best Actor again?
Bridges is stepping into John Wayne’s Oscar-winning role as a grumpy old lawman in Joel and Ethan Coen’s remake of the western classic “True Grit,” while Clooney plays a hit man lying low in Italy before one last job in “The American.”
Welcome to Hollywood’s version of fantasy baseball, where insiders try to dope out the Oscar prospects of films that largely haven’t been completed, often don’t have firm release dates, and in a few cases, lack even a US distributor yet.
COMPLETE LIST OF 2010 OSCAR WINNERS
A year out, it’s mostly about the past performances of the talent and the pedigree of the material.
Clint Eastwood may have struck out with “Invictus,” but because he’s got two Best Picture and two Best Director Oscars on his mantle, you’ve got to seriously consider his globespanning supernatural thriller “Hereafter” starring Matt Damon.
Similarly, it probably isn’t wise to ignore the yet-untitled romantic dramedy from writerdirector James Brooks, especially since it stars Oscar winners Jack Nicholson and Reese Witherspoon.
With 10 Best Picture slots, you can’t even rule out something as unlikely sounding as “The Beaver,” starring Mel Gibson as a depressed man who finds solace in . . . a hand puppet. Jodie Foster directs and plays his wife.
Here’s a far-from-complete list of contenders:
“Inception” — Christopher Nolan (“The Dark Knight”) directs Oscar winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Marion Cotillard with nominee Ellen Page in a futuristic sci-fi thriller.
“Fair Game” — Biopic with Naomi Watts and Sean Penn as outed CIA agent Valerie Plame and her husband.
“The Social Network” — Jesse Eisenberg in the story behind the creation of Facebook, directed by David Fincher (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”).
“Tree of Life” — Brad Pitt and Sean Penn in a family drama spanning half a century, from Terrence Malick (“The Thin Red Line”).
“The Green Zone” — Matt Damon hunts for WMDs in Iraq.
“The Black Swan” — Dark thriller with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis as rival ballerinas.
“Somewhere” — Sofia Coppola directs Stephen Dorff as a hard-living Hollywood celebrity who re-examines his life after the arrival of his 11-year-old daughter (Elle Fanning).
“Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps” — Michael Douglas reprises his Oscar-winning role in Oliver Stone’s belated sequel set during the Great Recession.
“Love and Other Drugs” — Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway in a fact-based story about a Viagra salesman.
“Eat Pray Love” — Julia Roberts travels the world after a divorce, finds Javier Bardem.
“The Town” — Boston-set thriller directed by and starring Ben Affleck; with Jon Hamm and Jeremy Renner.
“The Fighter” — Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg as half-brothers in the ring, one on the way up, the other on the way down.
“The Tempest” — Julie Taymor (“Across the Universe”) directs the latest version of the Shakespeare fantasy with Russell Brand and Helen Mirren.
“Never Let Me Go” — Adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro novel about three former classmates (Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, Sally Hawkins) who reunite to face their dark past.
“Secretariat” — Diane Lane as the great thoroughbred’s owner, John Malkovich as his trainer. Well, nobody expected “Seabiscuit” to be nominated as Best Picture, either.
“Toy Story 3” — Because I left Pixar’s “Up” off last year’s list.
lou.lumenick@nypost.com