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Template:Future film

Snakes on a Plane is an action film scheduled to be released by New Line Cinema on August 18, 2006. The David R. Ellis-helmed film was written by Sheldon Turner and stars Samuel L. Jackson. Although it is now in post-production, and the film wrapped up principal photography in August of 2005, five days of additional re-shooting have been done to bring the movie from a PG-13 rating to an R rating.

Plot

Template:Spoiler Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) and Sean Jones (Nathan Phillips), FBI agents, escort John Saunders (Mark Houghton), a former mafia member to testify in a highly publicized case. In the course of a flight between Hawaii and California, an assassin releases hundreds of venomous snakes in the hope of killing the witness. Template:Endspoilers

Early publicity

The film generated much pre-release interest on the Internet due to its title and premise. Much of the publicity Snakes on a Plane has received is due to a blog entry made by film industry insider 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." The film was soon reverted to the working title of Snakes on a Plane. On March 2nd 2006, IMDb reported that the film had been renamed S.O.A.P. (standing for Snakes On A Plane). However, a week later, IMDb reported that the name had again been changed back to "Snakes on a Plane," for reasons unstated.

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

On March 16, 2006, New Line Cinema publicly announced a contest on TagWorld and a website promoting the film. The contest allowed artists on TagWorld to have their music featured on the movie, whose release date was set for August 18, 2006.

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 vulgar line that originated as an internet parody of Samuel L. Jackson's traditional movie persona: "I want these motherfucking snakes off the motherfucking plane!"

Internet meme

Snakes on a Plane quickly became an Internet meme 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, and even a mock movie trailer.

Several independent T-shirt manufacturers have made T-shirts with graphics illustrating various humorous representations of "Snakes on a plane". One depicts a frontal exterior view of a plane cockpit. The pilot and copilot, viewed through the windows, are depicted to be 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 from the Star Wars series Mace Windu cutting down snakes with a lightsaber, was pulled, presumably for copyright reasons.

The phrase "Snakes On a Plane" has been used on Internet forums as to indicate that a given topic is nonsensical. With creative uses of capital letters and bold or italic text, 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 from both the Star Wars series and Pulp Fiction (both starring or prominently featuring Jackson). The slang form "SoaP" is used in place of "shit happens" or "oh well, what'cha gonna do?".

Cast

• Samuel L. Jackson as Neville Flynn
• Nathan Phillips as Sean Jones
• Mark Houghton as John Saunders
• Sunny Mabrey as Tiffany
• Todd Louiso as Price
• Kenan Thompson as Troy
• Agam Darshi as iPod girl
• Bruce James as Ken

April Fool's Joke

There is much speculation that the entire enterprise is an elaborate internet hoax, spotlighted by a fake press release issued a week before April Fool's Day, 2006. The All Things Considered interview might be a clue, as NPR is known for participating in April Fool's Pranks. Also, the alleged trailer for the film does not appear on its own website (as do other films from New Line Cinema), but appears hosted by a site unrelated to New Line, and contains noticeably sub-par CGI effects.

Much of imdb.com's inordinate message board chatter since March 23, 2006 contains stinging dismissals of anyone who inquires as to whether the excessive "Snakes On A Plane" hype is, in fact, a joke.

Trailers

• The first official footage from the film debuted on March 17, 2006. Studio sources have confirmed that this is not the official teaser, merely footage intended to benefit a songwriting contest.

References

1. ^ Friedman, Josh (2005). "I find your lack of faith disturbing: Snakes on a Motherfucking Plane" (HTML). Retrieved 2006-03-18. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
2. Mr. Beaks (2005). "Collider Exclusive: 'Snakes' Back on the Plane!" (HTML). Retrieved 2006-03-17. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
3. "Snakes on a Plane IMDB entry" (HTML). Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2006-03-17.
4. "TAGWORLD AND NEW LINE CINEMA TEAM FOR SNAKES ON A PLANE SOUNDTRACK CONTEST" (PDF). Retrieved 2006-03-18.
5. ^ "TagWorld :: snakesonaplane's - Home" (HTML). Retrieved 2006-03-18.
6. Borys Kit (2006). "The Hollywood Reporter.com: Fan frenzy for 'Snakes' is on a different plane" (HTML). Retrieved 2006-03-24. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
7. "Snakes on an Official Trailer (UPDATED)". Retrieved 2006-03-24.

External links

• Snakes on a Plane at IMDb
• Official Site
• New Line Cinema/TagWorld SoaP Music Contest and Press Release
• Parody Site
• Parody Fan Film "Snakes on an Elevator"
• Dude -- Snakes on a Plane! from Defamer
• Snakes on a Plane at Overcompensating by Jeffrey Rowland
• "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" in which Samuel L. Jackson is attacked by snakes
• Mention in January 2006 issue of Wired magazine
• Entertainment Weekly - The official Snakes on a Plane logo
• Parody Audio Trailer
• Fan-Made Video Trailer
• Snakes On A Plane Webcomic
• Interview with Dylan Innes, Production Assistant on Snakes On A Plane
• NPR Story About "Snakes on a Plane"
• Photoshopped Snakes on a Plane posters from Fark

• 2006 films
• Films set on an airplane
• Upcoming films
• Internet memes