This is truly a miracle of the modern age. When news of the upcoming and boringly-titled film ‘Pacific Air Flight 121′- starring Samuel L Jackson, in which hundreds of snakes accidentally are set free on a commercial flight- broke on the internet, it quickly became a phenomenon.
Following a blog entry made by screenwriter Josh Friedman, early hype from King Geek Harry Knowles over at Aintitcool.com, and mentions on several Internet portals; bloggers were soon creating songs, apparel, poster art, pages of fan fiction, parody films, mock movie trailers, and even a poker game.
And on the dubious hipster affection went. The film was renamed ‘Snakes on a Plane’, and underwent 5 days of re-shoots based on the wishes of ‘talkbackers’ on Aintitcool, giving it a language-and-gore R-rating. Furthermore, the phrase ‘Snakes on a Plane’ is now being used in place of ‘Shit Happens’. For example:
“I was mangled by the Black Arm of Snargle the other day.”
“Snakes on a Plane, me harty. Snakes on a Plane.”
Funniest of all, though, is that upon noticing the masses of bloggers referring to the film in the style of Sam Jackson-”Snakes on a MUTHA FUCKIN’ Plane!”-the film’s creators rewrote the script to include the line.
Will a studio listening so intently to their target audience pay off? The film is scheduled for an August 18th release date, so the effect have yet to be gauged. Until then, I predict news programmes like BBC’s Breakfast will waste airtime on ‘humorous’ articles, trying to figure out why a bunch of twenty- and thirty-somethings are so out of their mind for the film, and Sam Jackson et al will appear left, right and centre singing the praises of their ‘goofy little movie’.
Needless to say, you can bet your bottom dollar ‘Snakes on a Plane’ will do a hell of a lot better than ‘Pacific Air Flight 121′, and will spawn sequels like ‘Tigers in a Train’, ‘Goats on a Boat’ and ‘Warthogs in the Toilet’. Because for once in our lives, we know exactly what we’re getting when we hand over our well-earned cash at the Movie House/Warner Village.
Snakes. On a plane. You gotta love it!
he he, i love this.
Heard that Samuel Jackson said he wouldnt shoot the movie if they changed the movie from the working title ’snakes on a plane’ to Pacific Air Flight 121
‘Goats on a Boat’ has more gusto though. I can see them running through the halls of an ocean liner, women waking up with their favourite dresses eaten to death (if dresses do indeed die) and men from the country being seduced by them to do evil biddings