Well, so much for the Winter’s Bone Best Picture surge. This morning the Producers Guild announced their ten nominations for the Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures, and there were three mild surprises.

One, the shafting of Winter’s Bone, a presumed indicator of reduced steam as far as a Best Picture Oscar nom is concerned. Two, the nomination of 127 Hours, which has been declining over the last three or four weeks, almost to the point that some were predicting it might not make the cut. And three, the nomination of The Town, which began to lose its headwind in mid-to-late November when people finally realized that the Best Picture talk was mostly coming from easily impressed Academy members along with a smattering of non-pros (i.e., diner employees, Manhattan Con Ed workers, etc.) with unsophisticated taste buds and a lack of perspective.

The Zanuck nominees are 127 Hours (produced by Danny Boyle, Christian Colson), Black Swan (produced by Scott Franklin, Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver), Inception (produced by Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas), The Fighter (produced by David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Mark Wahlberg…hey, what about Ryan Kavanaugh?), The Kids Are All Right (produced by Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray), The King’s Speech (produced by Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin), The Social Network (produced by Dana Brunetti, Ce√°n Chaffin, Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin), The Town (produced by Basil Iwanyk, Graham King), Toy Story 3 (produced by Darla K. Anderson), True Grit (produced by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen and Scott Rudin).

The “bad” call in the documentary competition was the blow-off of Banksy ‘s Exit Through The Gift Shop. And I haven’t even seen Earth Made of Glass, which was produced by Reid Carolin and Deborah Scranton. Has anyone? Cheers to the other doc nominees: Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliiot Spitzer (awaiting final producing credit determination, but directed by Alex Gibney), Inside Job (produced by Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs), Smash His Camera (produced by Linda Saffire, Adam Schlesinger), The Tillman Story (produced by John Battsek) and Waiting for Superman (produced by Lesley Chilcott).