Greatest Movie Title Ever Molds Film to Own Likeness ’ Brady Ehler, OP Features Editor Traditionally, initial audiences (and potential audiences) for upcoming films have contributed a relatively small influence to the finished product. However, with New Line Cinema’s Snakes on a Plane, extensive internet buzz has influenced the film’s final form in unprecedented ways, including changing the movie’s rating. Most of us have heard of advance movie screenings, in which rough cuts of upcoming films are shown to test audiences. Depending on the reaction of the test audiences, certain scenes or characters may be altered, or cut entirely. Commonly, film crews actually go back to film additional material, in what is called pick-up shooting. The Snakes on a Plane film crew did do pick up shooting, but not because of unfavorable screening reviews, but rather because of the extensive internet buzz that surrounded the movie since the masses became aware of it’s impending release. Why did so much buzz surround the film? When the buzz began, there wasn’t a lot of information about it. There were obviously no detailed plot summaties available to the public. However, people knew this much: The working title for the movie was Snakes on a Plane, and the lead was Samuel L. Jackson of Pu/p Fiction fame. In fact, Jackson himself took the part because the movie was called Snakes on a Plane. When exactly did the buzz begin though? It must have been sometime early this year, right? Actually, people first began talking about Suakes before the movie entered production! Josh Friedman, a screenwriter, who was approached to re-write the script, wrote of his experience with SOAP in his blog, “I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing.” He had this to say about the script: “I ask Agent the name of the project, what it’s about, etc. He says: Snakes on a Plane. Holy shit, ’'m thinking, It’s a title. It’s a concept. It’s a poster and a logline and whatever else you need it to be. It’s perfect. Perfect. It’s the Everlasting Gobstopper of movie titles.” Unfortunately, when the studio decided to change the name of the film to “Pacific Air Flight 121,” Friedman backed out of the project. Ironically though, Friedman’s blog actually inspired an alteration to the script! While writing the content of the movie, Friedman men- tions, “I will not give away any of the plot details of Suakes On on a Plane. But know this. As the great Sam Jackson would say: There are motherf**king snakes on the motherf**king plane.” This led directly to Jackson’s now famous line, “I’m tired of these motherf**king snakes on this motherf**king plane,” which his character Neville Flynn shouts before shooting out a window of an in-flight airplane. 4 4 THE OTHER PRESS SEPTEMBER 14 2006 After Friedman’s blog entry, more e-buzz than you can shake a snake at followed. One notable website, created in January of this year, “Snakes on a Blog,” was created by fan, Brian Finkelstein in order to persuade New Line Cinema to send him to SOAP’s premiere screening, The site, which contains Finkelstein’s blog, fan written poems, fan trailers, fan, fan audio, fan forum, etc. eventually garnered enough attention, that Finkelstein got his wish and was sent to Hollywood for the screening. Under the weight of the internet buzz, brimming with Szakes on a Plane contests, parodies, merchandise sites, etc. the movie, which was originally to be a (presumably serious) PG-13 pro- duction reverted the official name back to Swakes on a Plane from Pacific Air Flight 12. Later, the film crew went back to film an additional five days of footage in order to boost the film’s rat- ing from PG-13 to R in the US. Snakes on a Plane began as a serious project. The movie grew out of script by a first-time Hollywood writer, David Dalessandro. The title for the original script was “Venom.” The scrip was to be flushed out by Friedman, who had worked on the movie adaptation of War of the Worlds and directed by Hong Hong action director, Ronny Yu, who had directed the American films The Bride of Chucky and Freddy Vs. Jason. Between Sam Jackson being cast as the lead, the change of director to David R. Ellis, and the massive amount fun being at with the movie on the internet, the movie took a drastic turn from what it might have been, to what it eventually became and it was all based on the name. Snakes might have had a sad destiny as a low-brow, over the top action movie analogous to speed or even *gasp* speed 2. Fortunately, the movie ended up a low-brow, over the top action ...that no one could possibly take seriously. Instead of becoming the movie equivalent to William Shatner’s 1968 release, The Transformed Man, SOAP ended up mote like Shatner’s 2004 release, Has Been. The difference being, that the production crew was in on the joke, instead of (merely) the butt of it. The amazing journey of this film in fundamental concept brings several questions to mind; is the beginning of the end of movie production as we know it? Will the masses, though the internet shape and twist upcoming films to make them better sellers before they hit the the- atres? Will I ever see a film with the author’s original script unadulterated by the brainless masses? Will this be more good than evil?