Hansard and Irglová were 37 and 19, respectively, when "nature took its course" in 2007 during their endless publicity rounds for Once — a journey that had begun auspiciously with their film's world premiere that year at Sundance. We're more than a little sad to imagine their busking days behind them and Irglová angrily rolling her gift piano down a flight of stairs behind a fleeing Hansard, but all great Oscar-soliciting affairs must end somehow. And anyway, this provides for a much more dramatic ending to that planned Broadway adaptation.

• 'Once' Couple Breaks It Off [Vulture]

That's the producers' hope, anyway: Songwriters Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová will pass off a handful of unused tunes in addition to those from the film's platinum-selling soundtrack (including the Oscar-winner "Falling Slowly"), with writer-director John Carney brought in to shepherd the production on its inexorable path to lo-fi folk empire. Failing its principals' participation, however, look for the producers to cast David Cook and Carly Smithson in a scrappy, Idol-tinged adaptation of the Once saga itself, from its award-winning run at Sundance '07 through its box-office boom and into this year's Oscar show, where the show concludes with Irglová/Smithson's acceptance speech bloodily severed by the orchestra.

• 'Once' gets musical makeover [Variety]

The duo, who have performed in relative obscurity under the name The Swell Season since 2006, now have an Oscar and a Grammy. Once is the best-selling album on iTunes and the #9 DVD on Amazon. Their label expects sales of the album to triple in the next week.

The pair is gearing up for a U.S. tour: Instead of the 75-seat clubs and bars The Swell Season played last year, they'll be headlining venues like Radio City Music Hall and the Coachella Music Festival. There was one other blessing the film wrought — Hansard and Irglova fell in love while promoting Once last spring.

Bravely acknowledging "[t]here's nothing quite like the Oscars as a promotional vehicle," a Fox spokesman toed a company line with a trajectory secretly stretching all the way into 2015, when Once Over — the third Once sequel after the incrementally diminishing returns of Once More, Once Again and their accompanying Hansard/Irglova Happy Meal action figures — will be released direct to YouTube with Miley Cyrus and Zac Efron filling in as lo-fi lovebirds at the helm of a violently franchise-ending 'tween folk apocalypse. Asked to confirm that Diablo Cody is attached to direct, the spokesman declined comment.

• The Once Juggernaut: Rising Quickly [Time]