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Snakes on a Plane

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This article or section contains information about one or more . The content may change dramatically as the film's release approaches and more information becomes available.

Snakes on a Plane is a high concept action/horror film scheduled to be released by New Line Cinema on August 18, 2006. The David R. Ellis-helmed film was written by David Dalessandro, John Heffernan, Sheldon Turner and stars Samuel L. Jackson. Although the film is now completed, the film wrapped up principal photography in September of 2005 including five days of additional re-shooting to bring the movie from a PG-13 rating to an R rating.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417148/trivia Though officially designated as action/horror, there has been speculation that the film is actually intended to be a dark, absurdist, or surreal comedy, such as the cult film Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.

Contents

Plot

Nelville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) and Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips), who are FBI agents, escort John Saunders (Mark Houghton), a former low-ranking member of the Mafia, to testify in a highly publicized case. In the course of a flight between Hawaii and California, an assassin pays airport security to sneak a time-release crate of 400 snakes of various sizes on board in the hope of killing the witness.Snakes On a Plane, Entertainment Weekly, April 28, 2006

Taglines

Publicity

The film generated much pre-release interest on the Internet due to its title and premise. Much of the publicity is due to a blog entry made by screenwriter Josh Friedman, who had been offered a chance to work on the script. The casting of popular actor Samuel L. Jackson further increased anticipation. Ronny Yu was originally slated to direct and spoke enthusiastically about the project before leaving due to budget disputes and "creative differences." He was replaced by David R. Ellis.

At one point, the film's working title was altered to Pacific Air Flight 121. In August 2005, a perturbed Samuel L. Jackson told an interviewer, "We're totally changing that back. That's the only reason I took the job: I read the title." In another interview in early 2006, Jackson claimed that once he learned about the movie title being changed he said: "What are you doing here? It's not Gone with the Wind. It's not On the Waterfront. It's Snakes on a Plane!" The film was soon reverted to the working title of Snakes on a Plane on March 2 2006.

The film was featured in Wired as "The best worst film of 2006," despite being given the "award" in January 2006, based only on the title and concept of the movie.[link]

On March 16, 2006, New Line Cinema publicly announced a contest on TagWorld and a website promoting the film.

A scene from Snakes on a Plane
Enlarge
A scene from Snakes on a Plane
The contest allowed artists on TagWorld to have their music featured on the movie.
In recognition of the unprecedented Internet buzz for what had been a minor movie in their 2006 line-up, New Line Cinema ordered five days of additional shooting in early March 2006 (principal photography had wrapped in September 2005). While re-shoots normally imply problems with a film, the producers opted to add new scenes to the film to take the movie from PG-13 into R-rated territory and bring the movie in line with the growing fan expectation. Among the reported additions is a line that originated as an Internet parody of Samuel L. Jackson's traditional movie persona: "That's it! I have had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!".

Beginning in May 2006, episodes of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and its sister show The Colbert Report contained references to Snakes on a Plane title, and famous line, and general premise. Colbert usually accompanies the references with an imitation of Samuel L. Jackson saying something like "We've got motherfucking snakes on this plane."

Beginning on an unknown date, G4's "Attack of the Show" features a semi-regular segment entitled "Snakes on a Plane: An Attack of the Show Investigation".

Black Flame is publishing the novelization to this film. It is written by Christa Faust, a cult horror writer with fans such as Quentin Tarantino. The novelization is available from bricks and mortar booksellers and from online vendors.

On June 3, 2006, Samuel L. Jackson said, while presenting the award for best movie at the MTV Movie Awards, "I'm here tonight to present the award everyone's been waiting for: best movie. This award holds a special place in my heart because next year I'll be winning it for Snakes on a Plane. Now I know, I know that sounds cocky, but I don't give a damn. I'm guaranteeing that Snakes on a Plane will win best movie next year. Does not matter what else is coming out. New James Bond... no snakes in that! Ocean's 13... where my snakes at? Shrek the Third... green, but not a snake. No movie shall triumph over Snakes on a Plane. Unless I happen to feel like making a movie called Mo' Motha-fuckin' Snakes on Mo' Motha-fuckin' Planes."

On June 13, 2006, comic book writer Chuck Dixon announced on his web site that he would be writing the comic book adaptation of Snakes on a Plane. It has since been announced by DC that the two issue mini series will be released on August 17th and August 31st.

In June 2006 New Line Cinema commissioned famed UK audio-visual film remixers and chop-up artists Addictive TV to cut and sample Snakes on a Plane to create trailers for the US television networks.

On July 6, 2006, The Official Snakes on a Plane website started a promotional sweepstakes called the "The #1 Fan King Cobra Sweepstakes." The contest makes innovative use of the publicity-generating potential of the Internet, requiring contestants to post links on forums, blogs, and websites and collecting votes from the users of those sites.

The music video for the film, released July 10, 2006 on MTV2's Unleashed, also generated publicity toward the movie. The video is for the first song on the soundtrack CD, "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)" by Cobra Starship.

Internet phenomenon

Snakes on a Plane quickly became an Internet phenomenon soon after Josh Friedman's blog entry and mentions on several Internet portals. The title inspired bloggers to create songs, apparel, poster art, pages of fan fiction, parody films, mock movie trailers, a [board game], and even a poker game.

Several independent T-shirt manufacturers have made T-shirts with graphics illustrating various humorous representations of "Snakes on a plane". One, created by Jeffrey Rowland, depicts a frontal exterior view of a plane cockpit. The pilot and copilot, viewed through the windows, are depicted as snakes. Another uses vintage road signs to formulate "Snakes + Plane = Snakes on a Plane". A third, with a cartoon representation of Samuel L. Jackson's character Mace Windu from the Star Wars series cutting down snakes with a lightsaber, was pulled, presumably for copyright reasons. A Snakes t-shirt is also now available at Hot Topic retail stores. Samuel L. Jackson was dressed in the snakes in cockpit fanshirt in the official music video "Snakes on a Plane", though this is only readily obvious from still photos from the day of the shoot, and only a fraction of the shirt is visible in the video. It is unknown if he himself chose the shirt, or if someone working on wardrobe selected it.

The phrase "Snakes on a Plane" has been [used on Internet forums] to indicate that a given topic is nonsensical. With creative uses of capital letters, bold or italic text, and punctuation the title has been manipulated to reflect surprise, horror, or absurdity, among other things. The meme is often interspersed with images of Samuel L. Jackson reprising his role as Mace Windu and quoting lines recalling his roles from both the Star Wars series and Pulp Fiction. The slang form "SoaP" is used in place of "Shit happens" or "Oh well, what'cha gonna do?" A flood of S.O.A.P themed songs are now available because of the contest at [TagWorld], further feeding the frenzy.

A viral video entitled "Snakes on a Plane Early Auditions"[link] features comedian Dave Coyne doing impressions of actors Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Joe Pesci, and Robert Deniro, and muppet, Beaker, doing casting auditions for the movie. The film has been featured on Digg, iFilm, YouTube.

An illustrated book is forthcoming from Thunder's Mouth Press detailing the internet phenomenon, entitled [Snakes on a Plane : The Guide to the Internet Ssssssensation] by David Waldon. Waldon details various viral videos relating to the SoaP craze, and interviewed their producers to find out what about the movie captured their attention. The book is scheduled to be in stores just before the theatrical release of the film.

Many of the early false trailers and other viral videos circulated via YouTube, and captured media attention there, such as "Snakes on a Plane Early Auditions"[link], a ["Snakes on a Plane" fake trailer], and ["Snakes on a Plane: How Hollywood Really Works"]

An internet podcast called [geeks on a plain] talks about Snakes on a Plane news and other geeks news can be found on itunes when one searches "snakes on a plane"

Cast

Trailers

Soundtrack

The soundtrack will be released on August 15, 2006 as a joint project between New Line Records and Decaydance Records. [link]

  1. Cobra Starship - "Snakes on a Plane (Bring It)" ([youtube music video])
  2. Panic! at the Disco - "The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage (Tommie Sunshine Brooklyn Fire Remix)"
  3. The Academy Is... - "Black Mamba (Teddybears Remix)"
  4. Cee-Lo - "Ophidiophobia"
  5. The All-American Rejects - "Can't Take It (El Camino Prom Wagon Remix)"
  6. The Sounds - "Queen of Apology (Patrick Stump Remix)"
  7. Fall Out Boy - "Of All the Gin Joints in All the World (Tommie Sunshine Brooklyn Fire Retouch)"
  8. Gym Class Heroes - "New Friend Request (Hi-Tek Remix)"
  9. The Bronx - "Around the Horn (Louis XIV Remix)"
  10. Armor For Sleep - "Remember to Feel Real (Machine Shop Remix)"
  11. The Hush Sound - "Wine Red (Tommie Sunshine Brooklyn Fire Retouch)"
  12. Jack's Mannequin - "Bruised (Remix)"
  13. Coheed and Cambria - "Wake Up (Acoustic)"
  14. Donavon Frankenreiter - "Lovely Day"
  15. Michael Franti & Spearhead - "Hey Hey Now"
  16. Trevor Rabin - "Snakes on a Plane - The Theme"

Trivia

References

External links

 

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