Snakes on a plain cause cause panic in Iraq.

Ok, I don’t really understand this at all, but here’s a rap recap of that last news story I posted:

Huh.

Ah Australia, you’re so quaint with your shipping of snakes on planes, and then casually allowing them to escape. I approve of this:

An Australian airliner was grounded after four baby pythons escaped from their container in the aircraft’s hold.

The snakes, just six inches long, were among 12 Stimson’s pythons being flown from Alice Springs to Melbourne.

At first it was thought the reptiles may have been eaten by the other snakes, but this was discounted after they were weighed on landing.

Passengers were transferred to other aircraft. The jet was fumigated but the snakes’ bodies are yet to be found.

I like that the snakes MIGHT have been eaten by bigger, badder, tougher snakes. Snakes have no morals, they’re killing machines. They’ll eat whatever living creatures you put in front of them. OF COURSE the bigger snakes ate the smaller snakes, what did you think would happen? They’re snakes. On a plane. It’s a recipe for tragedy.

Thanks Lorelei.

THE line from Snakes on a Plane, as broadcast on basic cable:

This might actually be an improvement.   Blasphemous, I know.

Via Dlsited and /film and CrazyMonk.

Samuel L. Jackson chimes in at Reddit.

This is terrifying.

Snakes in the University of Missouri library. You think you’re safe quietly reading a book? Think again.

From the Washington Post:

Sure, the movie “Snakes on a Plane” was scary. But how about this sequel: “Snakes in a Cheap Motel Room”?

B Movie News reports that Fred Olen Ray is directing Recoil which will feature snakes on a submarine. It’s not a sequel, just another movie riffing on the same underlying concept, but maybe it can help show the value of the genre:

One of my first thoughts after watching it was “I wonder what that would have been like if Fred Olen Ray had directed it”. Well I guess I’m going find out. But instead of a plane it will be on a submarine and instead of Samuel L Jackson it will have Luke Perry. Shooting started this morning. It will feature Luke Perry, Cynthia Gibb, Bill Stevens, Sam Scarpa and Louis Mandylor.

I’m still rooting for Bears on a Submarine or maybe Wolves on a Submarine, but I’ll take what I can get.

Birds in a house.  These things just write themselves.

A car crash in the East St. Louis led yesterday to a reptile roundup. Police in Fairview Heights, Ill., said a car clipped one house then crashed into the basement of a neighboring home occupied by a snake breeder.

The accident broke open several of the home’s glass cages, freeing their slithery contents.

Police said none of the 10 escaped snakes was venomous, and it appears they’ve all been rounded up.

The car’s driver was treated for minor cuts and scrapes…

And, presumably, terror.

Thanks Lorelei.

Sad news from the entertainment world today — New Line Cinema, producer of Snakes on a Plane, is no more.

The company has been folded into Warner Brothers and Bob Shaye, brother of Snakes on a Plane star Lin Shaye, has stepped down as co-Chairman.

New Line will maintain its own identity and will continue to produce, market, and distribute movies. But New Line will now do so as part of Warner Bros. and will probably be a much smaller operation than in the past. Time Warner hopes that operating New Line as a unit of Warner Bros. will allow New Line to focus on the creative side of movie-making, while reducing costs and taking advantage of Warner Bros.’ distribution system.

This is a sad day both on a personal level, and on an industry level. Personally I have gotten to know a number of people at New Line who have been tremendously enthusiastic and supportive and who I’d like to see weather this storm. I have no idea what’s in any of their futures, but I wish them all well.

Throughout the Snakes on a Plane process, I always asserted that New Line Cinema, as a corporation, was handling themselves very well. I thanked them frequently for being more progressive on new media issues than Paramount, Universal or Fox. On one notable occasion I came to them when a fan felt that New Line had appropriated one of the fan’s merchandising ideas and, within hours, the issue was resolved with the fan being fully compensated. New Line understood the value of their fans and the importance of taking care of them. The movie industry as a whole could learn a lot from how New Line carried itself with respect to fan relations. I just hope that this merger with Warner Brothers doesn’t crush their fan-friendly, independent spirit.

I can only wonder what impact this might have on the future of Snakes on a Plane. Warner Brothers, any ideas?

Good luck New Line and New Line people, I wish you well.

Irregular Webcomic does its own take on Snakes on a Plane, in mostly lego form.

I previously discussed that Epic Movie was going to contain a Snakes on a Plane parody sequence (here and here).  The video of that sequence has finally made it online — watch it.

From Final Curtain by R.T. Jordan, page 2:

“All I know is the new Sondheim musical is apparently so depressing it’s actually scaring away the Broadway tourist trade. They need a fun and familiar placeholder at the Palace Theatre until Snakes on a Plane: The Musical opens in February. The producers are looking at Mame.”

Am I the only one who thinks this isn’t a terrible idea?

Thanks Seth.

Angry Alien does Snakes on a Plane in 30 Seconds (with bunnies, of course).  I saw this first On Demand through Comcast (ironically), but it was apparently done originally for Starz.

This is probably the norm on Vietnam Airlines:

Vietnam has seized more than a ton of ratsnakes found aboard a Vietnam Airlines flight from Bangkok, the second time in about a month such snakes were found in air cargo to Vietnam, state media said on Friday.

Guess what?

Who’s coming with me?

I saw Samuel L. Jackson at an airport in Hawaii (he was there for a golf tournament) and didn’t recognize him.  I’m totally ashamed of myself.

Sometimes whining can pay off.