I was going to tap something out today about Joseph Kosinski and Tom Cruise‘s Oblivion (Universal, 4.19) but other stories intervened. I’ll post something semi-substantial tomorrow, but here are three fast observations:

(1) For a big futuristic CG-space-travel movie with a complex plot that (a) doesn’t really tie together, (b) goes off the rails somewhere between the halfway and two-thirds mark (beware of the clones) and (c) uses a foretold darkish ending and then chickens out at the very end, Oblivion can at least lay claim to one good thing. It’s significantly less irritating than Ridley Scott‘s Prometheus. I think it’s entirely fair and accurate to say this. To a lot of people this will sound like a plus.

(2) Cruise always knows how to deliver the right behavior in big event-type films. He’s always “in the moment” of any given scene and never winks at the audience. Not blatantly, I mean. To Cruise’s credit, he always underplays it just slightly. I’m always comfortable with him because he almost never does or “acts” or emotes anything that seems wrong or excessive.

(3) For all its irritations, Oblivion does take you to an exotic world that’s not overly dystopian, that seems like a reasonably realistic environment, and that is often visually intriguing. A lot of people go to movies like this in order to take trips. They play along with the plot and characters and whatnot, but they’ve mainly bought their tickets in order to experience a new world. Oblivion is familiar in a few ways, yes, but at the very least those salt-water energy turbines are cool.

This slipped out earlier today (or was it last night?), but the Cannes Film Festival guys are announcing that (a) Un Certain Regard’s jury president is director Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration, The Hunt) and (b) that Sofia Coppola‘s The Bling Ring will open Un Certain Regard on Thursday, May 16th. Pic costars Emma Watson, Taïssa Farmiga, Leslie Mann and Kirsten Dunst.

In a 4.17 N.Y. Times interview with Dave Itzkoff, The King of Comedy costar Sandra Bernhard is asked that awful question that will never go away and which I’m thoroughly sick of hearing at press junket round-tables — i.e., “as a relative newcomer did you find it intimidating to be working with this or that famous actor?,” blah blah.

But Bernhard, praise the Lord, totally ignores Itzkoff’s bait and give a refreshingly frank and on-target answer, or what sounds like one to me.

Itzkoff: “This was one of your first major roles, and suddenly you’re working with Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis. Were you intimidated?”

Bernhard: “The only time I’m intimidated is when I work with amateurs. When you work with great people, it gives you a sense of confidence and it’s a vote of confidence for your talents. You’re like, How can I go wrong here? These people aren’t going to let me fall. It’s the people that are threatened by everybody else that are going to trip you up.”

The interview was given to promote the 4.27 Tribeca Film festival screening of a restored version of Martin Scorsese’s 1983 film.

I’ve been planning to have a re-designed Hollywood Elsewhere up and running by early May. But the roughs from HE’s deisgner were slow in coming so yesterday afternoon I said “the hell with it” and went down to my local Kinkos with scissors and scotch tape and pasted together my own design. It’s different, it’s roughly balanced and is more or less what the new HE will be. Many refinements will happen between now and May 1st (I’m obviously sharing the re-design in hopes of attracting comments and suggestions) but I like that the classic HE skyscraper now has protruding features and boxes — I like the architectural feeling of flirting with but not succumbing to structural imbalance.

BUZZHOUND (not a firm name — still playing around with options) will be one of those up-and-down charts that track who or what is rising or falling in terms of critical huzzahs, box-office, general perception, etc. An instant-read device that will appeal to those who find reading more than three paragraphs in succession to be a challenge. I was also thinking of calling it DECEPTIONIST but this sounds like something Perez Hilton would write. I was also considering SCANNERS but that hasn’t resonated with people I’ve asked so far. A trusted colleague says that BUZZHOUND sounds a little crude and common, but others are down with it. You can’t say it doesn’t sound simple, direct and unambiguous.

The FLASHBOX will be one of those left-to-right tickers that highlight the latest HE items and stories — nothing original. (I ran a moving ticker bar five or six years ago.) I like that the lead story will be in the FLUSH UPPER LEFT position and the TWITTER BOX (all my current tweets plus responses & eff yous and whatnot) will overlap the right edge of the column. I think this opens things up and makes the column seem a little cooler on some level.

The ALL-WHITE VERTICAL LOWER-LEFT PANEL that kisses the 160 x 600 ads would consist of either (a) a series of postage-stamp photos that would expand into monster-size JPEGs if you click on them, or (b) a vertical URL link panel, but someone was recently saying that offering links to other sites is an old idea that should be tossed.

I love that the site will now offer two 728 x 90 ad spaces instead of one, and that they’ll be separated by copy. A couple of 160 x 600 ad spaces will be lost but the extra 728 x 90 will more than make up.

The most important thing will be to format the new HE so that it looks nice and simple on the iPhone. The design as I’ve indicated will probably be okay on the iPad but I’ll defer to people who know this stuff better than I.

Is this really happening? N.Y. Post critic/columnist Lou Lumenick is now reporting that Warner Home Video’s forthcoming Shane Bluray (due on 6.4) “will now be presented in the 1:37 aspect ratio instead of the originally announced 1:66 ratio.” Lumenick says he was told this information “by a rep for Warner Home Video, which is handling release of many catalogue titles owned by Paramount Pictures.” No popping the champagne until an official announcement is issued by either Warner Home Video or Paramount Home Video, but this sounds amazing. I’m having an out-of-body experience.

Earlier today Lumenick tweeted that a DCP of the much-reviled 1.66 version of George Stevens‘ 1953 classic would not be shown at TCM Classic Film Festival in Hollywood next week, and that the correct 1:37 version would screen instead.

So nobody will even see the 1.66 version now? I for one am at least curious to see what all the rumpus was about. It would be interesting to see what will now go down in history as a huge miscalculation on the part of Paramount Home Video. On top of which George Stevens, Jr. assured me in an email received last month that he’d taken pains to make sure that the 1.66:1 compositions would be much more inclusive and balanced than the 1.66 images projected at the Radio City Music Hall when Shane opened in April of 1953. Perhaps the 1.66 version will show up on cable or Netflix/Amazon/Hulu down the road.

Needless to add this is a huge “bitches bow” moment for Hollywood Elsewhere. Lumenick has been an occasional antagonist of me and this column in the past, but he was classy enough to offer congratulations — thanks, Lou.

I’m naturally presuming that this “leaked” 2013 Cannes competition roster is bogus until I hear otherwise from at least two people in a position to know. But if it’s genuine — I say “if” — everyone will be over the moon about seeing Alexander Payne‘s black-and-white Nebraska, which you have to automatically assume will be a Best Picture contender because…you know, the Payne brand. This is just what Cannes needed. But let’s not jump the gun. The official announcement is 12 or 13 hours away.

io9‘s Meredith Woerner reports the following from Cinemacon about some teaser footage from Alfonso Cuaron‘s Gravity: “It was quick and dirty, but completely terrifying. The only bit of information we’ve ever had on this flick is this one-line synopsis: ‘Astronauts attempt to return to earth after debris crashes into their space shuttle, leaving them drifting alone in space.’ What was shown was this moment, and only this moment.

“George Clooney and Sandra Bullock hovering outside of some sort of spacecraft in modern-day space suits. Clooney’s voice crackles over a radio, ‘It’s gorgeous, isn’t it? The sunrise?’ The earth is simply twinkling in gorgeous light. They nod toward each other, a moment of silence while orbiting their home planet. And then they’re hit. You can’t tell what but they’re showered with some sort of space debris. Could be a meteor shower. The space station is shattered. One floating astronaut helplessly drags his or her fingers across the side of the station. The other grapples with some sort of tubing. ‘Don’t let go!’ Bullock cries. But it’s too late. She’s floating away, ever so slowly. You can hear her breathing pick up as she floats farther and farther away from the damaged craft. We’re not 100% sure if Clooney manages to stay near the wreck, but Bullock is 100% gone.

“All in all,” Woerner concludes, “the footage felt like [it lasted] one minute — but it was intense enough to leave a massive impression. Let’s hope Cuaron keeps the real “terror in space” vibe alive through the end.” One presumes that the footage was in 3D, although Weorner doesn’t mention this/

This will not be taken as surprising by anyone in the know, but a European distribution guy told me the following this morning: “Not that it matters much only one day before the official announcement, but I’ve got confirmation from [a 100% reliable source] that Inside Llewyn Davis, the new Coen brothers film, and Only God Forgives, the allegedly ultra-violent Nicholas Winding Refn-Ryan Gosling filme, will indeed play in competition in Cannes. Inside Llewyn Davis will apparently screen on the first weekend, and Only God Forgives on the second Wednesday.

After confirming earlier that a restored Shane would be screened at the TCM Classic Festival in the reviled 1.66 format, N.Y. Post critic/columnist Lou Lumenick tweeted this morning that “TCMfilmfest will now show Shane in 1:37 instead of 1:66 ‘because Paramount is making both available.'” That’s code, trust me, for “the powers-that-be have thrown in the towel.” If Shane Bluray distributor Warner Home Video was in a balls-out, damn-the-defiant mode for the 1.66 version, they would have insisted that it be screened in that format at the TCM festival.

The 1.66 Shane Bluray will still come out in early June, of course, but I’m told that a 1.37 alternative version will be made available later this year, probably via Warner Archives.

Needless to add plans to picket the 4.27 Shane screening at the TCM Classic Film Festival have been called off. And I went all the way downtown yesterday to get my public demonstration permit, or at least to start the process. At least I didn’t buy the poster-picket materials — posterboard, wooden pickets, magic markers, heavy staples.

All hail Team 1.37! Sincere thanks to Woody Allen, Joseph McBride, Bob Furmanek and all the commenters who stood up and said the right thing. And shame on those Home Theatre Forum commenters who kept insisting that 1.66 was a proper way to go because Paramount marketing execs insisted on cropping the original film in order to deliver a faux-panoramic screen experience in first-run theatres back in the spring of 1953.

A black-tie Shane 1.37 “boxy is beautiful” victory dinner for late April (just before or just after the 4.27 Shane screening at TCMfest) is being planned as we speak. I was going to to book a suite at the Beverly Hills hotel for the occasion, but now I’m thinking a rear table at Mel’s on the Strip is a better idea.

Haven’t even watched this yet. About to. Just got home from a screening of Jeff Nichols‘ Mud (Lionsgate/Roadside, 4.26). One of the year’s best in my book. Steady, solid and delivered just right. A coming-of-age story without a drop of treacly sentiment and no pandering to the saps. One of the finest Southern-flavored dramas about small-town rural values that I’ve ever seen, right up there with Sling Blade, Tender Mercies, The Straight Story, The Trip to Bountiful.