nootropic undertook an idea that was suggested to me by a friend a few months ago, calling up airlines and finding out what their official policy about Snakes on a Plane is. Unfortunately, there’s no audio clips.  From his intro:

In short, no airline will allow me to bring a snake (or many snakes) on board, but their responses varied from humorless (Northwest, American), clueless (United), to downright funny (JetBlue).

Enjoy.

Jeffrey Wells wrote a lengthy piece (potential spoilers in the link) about Snakes on a Plane on Hollywood Elsewhere yesterday. He claims to have sources inside New Line that provided him with two interesting pieces of news. The first is about the relase date of the film, the second is about a minor plot element that I will try to hide so those wishing to avoid spoilers can do so.

Here’s his comment about the release date:

My New Line source says “there’s a heavy debate about this going on right now. Some want to stay with August because that gives you a couple of weeks free and clear…the competition isn’t too bad then. But others want to go sooner, for obvious reasons.”

I checked with my own sources at New Line who all more or less scoffed at this. As far as I know, the release date is, for the moment, stable.

And here’s our mini-spoiler/plot element. Highlight the white space to read the omitted text:

A New Line source told me this morning that they’ve added, for one example, a shot of “a guy being bitten by a snake on his Johnson.” How does that happen exactly? “He’s taking a leak or…? Mile-High Club,” he answered.

All previous Movie News.

Here’s a story:

As we discussed Snakes on Plane with much excitement at a local bar, my friend’s sister thought the entire time we were saying “Steaks on a Plane”. So I made the appropriate T-shirts in her honor which we plan to wear to the theater August 18.

You can pick up items with this design at the Planet Redhead CafePress shop.

All previous Fan Clothing.

There’s a lengthy post on Rotten Tomatoes detailing the authors views on the symbolism of Snakes on a Plane and how the movie is going to be one large analogy to World War II:

How does Snakes on a Plane relate to this? The snakes in Snakes on a Plane are a symbol for the Japanese’s evil use of aviation to destroy Pearl Harbor. In essence, this plane in the film, will be filled with Snakes. Without the Snakes the plane is just a harmless tool, but with snakes on it becomes a dangerous weapon. So you might say the snakes represent the possibility of turning aviation into a dangerous weapon. The snakes represent that possibility, they represent the Japanese during WWII. Once the “devils” aka Snakes infest the plane, it becomes a weapon that can harm.

…

Sam Jackson represents the isolationist America. In the beginning of the film he won’t be a loud mouth, he won’t make conversation with the people around him, he’ll sit in his seat like a sleeping giant. But when those snakes attack, when that Snake Pearl Harbor happens, the sleeping giant will awake. Like he says in the trailer, “That’s it, I’ve had it with these snakes.”. Clearly writing inspired by FDR’s speech on Dec. 8th.

A reader pointed me to this Podcast at The Watercooler all about Snakes on a Plane. They play clips from the non-trailier/trailer, Samuel L. Jackson’s NPR interview as well as Jesus Candy’s fan song. Enjoy.

All previous Movie News.

Entertainment Weekly somehow published the WRONG official movie logo which I posted the other day. They’ve corrected their mistake. Here’s the old (left) and new (right) official logos:

 

Not a big change, but there you go.

All previous Move News.

This MP3 (thanks Ryan) (this version plays the dialogue at the right speed and sounds better) is purportedly from Samuel L. Jackson’s dialogue in the movie and includes some of the dialogue we heard in the non-trailer/trailer and expands upon it a little bit in each direction. If this is real, it seems like people are going to get what they want to hear.

And it seems as though reader Jim was correct in his analysis of the dialogue… good job on that.

Also, because of all the press in the last 24 hours I’ve gotten a ton of emails. If I haven’t answered yours or done anything with what you’ve sent me, feel free to send it again. I apologize, but I’m a little bit backlogged. Hopefully I’ll get to everything.

NPR’s All Things Considered ran a segment today on Snakes on a Plane. Go ahead and listen to the MP3 (I thought they would also have a transcript online, but I guess not). They interviewed me this afternoon and I did, in fact, make it into the piece AND I don’t sound totally moronic, which is GREAT. It was very scary.

In addition to me, they had an interview with David Ellis and played clips from Subatomic Warp’s fan song and fan audio trailer… and they even read a few foreign title translations.

NPR also did an interview a few weeks ago with Samuel L. Jackson for those of you who are looking for a little bit more backstory.

How’d I do?

All previous Fan Audio.

Update: Transcript available after the jump:

Read the rest of this entry »

(UPDATE: EW published the wrong official logo, here’s the NEW logo.)

Entertainment Weekly scooped me today (I’m hurt, New Line) with the official logo for Snakes on a Plane. Here you go:

It combines the graphic that they recently posted on their official webpage with a crossed snake design which is remiscient of a few things we’ve seen previously.

According to the EW story David Ellis claims the logo was borne out of fan-graphics like Defamer’s early images. Additionally the idea is partially linked to the medical logo which is apparently called a caduceus… decide for yourself:

They also acknowledged that there’s a lot of obvious options for a tagline:

“We have so many taglines that go from sublime to ridiculous,” says New Line’s marketing head Russell Schwartz. ”You could obviously put [on the poster]: ‘If the food doesn’t kill you, they will.”

All previous Movie News.

Two days ago I was interviewed by a reporter for the Hollywood Reporter, and today they ran this story about the movie and the growing fan culture. Here’s the most interesting part of the story:

Soon, the growing legion of fans added their voices as they demanded that that phrase also appear in the movie.

Apparently, the studio got the hint. When Ellis assembled Jackson and others for the recent shoot, the filmmakers added more gore, more death, more nudity, more snakes and more death scenes. And they shot a scene where Jackson does utter the line that fans have demanded. (Editorial Note: this has been reported so many different times that I’m going to stop treating it as a ’spoiler.’)

Those involved with the film said the reshoots weren’t prompted by fans but rather by the existing footage that already was a hairline into R territory. Within the studio, the thinking was, “We’re already going to get an R, why not go all the way?” But the filmmakers do concede that the Jackson line will be in the movie for the sake of the fans.

A few weeks ago I was interviewed for and quoted in an AP story that ran in the ASAP, an offshoot of the AP geared towards a younger audience, about Snakes on a Plane. There’s another story up today from a different writer about the film’s popularity. This time, perhaps wisely, they interviewed Harry Knowles of AintItCoolNews, here’s part of what he had to say:

Once the film formally got announced as existing people online just sort of jumped to it … All the really weird Internet stuff started showing up — just random college Web sites and kids’ Web sites playing with the name “Snakes on a Plane.” There’s these really, really funky t-shirts that you can find on eBay that are just trying to make it look as cheap and funky as possible because that makes it look cooler. Now it’s got a very high-profile name brand sort of attached to it. A lot of people are looking forward to it in a “it’s got to be so bad it’s good” sort of way.

No quotes from me this time, but they did give a link pointing back here. It’s like we’re internet buddies.

I’m up too late, but I wanted to get this online for those of you with talent, so I’m just going to quote the email:

My weekly comedy night in Boston — called Zebro — will be hosting a Snakes on a Plane music video contest, taking the infamous Snakes on a Plane song writing contest a step further. We will have people sign up to write their own songs for Snakes on a Plane and then create a music video for their original Snakes on a Plane song. All will be screened in front of an audience this upcoming Tuesday, March 28th. The audience will vote on which video they think is the best according to the following criteria: originality, quality, humor, cinematography, and snakes.

We will be posting the winners online next week so I wanted to give you the heads up. However, submissions will be accepted from outside parties across the USA and beyond.

More information on the show is available at:
www.zebroshow.com
OR
myspace.com/zebroshow

Thanks so much.

I’d appreciate if you contact me as well with any content you’re submitting, I’d love to see what’s out there.

UPDATE: Here’s the postcard for the event:

I stumbled across this a few days ago and found it amusing. The Chiditarod is urban Chicago’s version of the Iditarod where five people group-steer a shopping cart around the streets of Chicago in some sort of charity-based race. Anyway, one of the teams took the unlikely moniker “Snakes on a Plane,” here are two pictures of them:

Update 3/27/06: I got in touch with one of the drivers of the cart and have a few new pictures for you:

Go team Snakes on a Plane!

Ok, I’ve got three quick videos for you, ranging from the most entertaining to the least entertaining.

Lazy Sunday U.K. by Illimms Productions

Lazy Sunday U.K. is a response to the Saturday Night Live Lazy Sunday rap that came out a few months ago. It has a passing Snakes on a Plane reference, but it’s a pretty good one.

Blackbird (Blacksnake) by dedwolfbones

This is two guys singing a version of Paul McCartney’s Blackbird with lyrics about Snakes on a Plane.

Snakes on a Plane: Trailer One by viscountstcroix

This, again, is the least entertaining of the three. It consists, mostly, of a guy making a slightly odd voice and then rolling around on the floor with a snake. It’s sort of a fake trailer.

All previous Fan Videos.

I picked up a little bit of information on the Trailer/Non-Trailer and the TagWorld songwriting contest today:

1. Within the first three days online, the trailer on their site was viewed over 300,000 times. Add to that the 100,000 times it was viewed at the defunct YouTube link and youv’e got a lot of views. Unless it was just me watching it 400,000 times, there’s apparently a lot of interest out there.
2. They’ve released a new version of their player so that you can embed the video directly into your site… with permission (goodbye lawsuit threats). The code is at the bottom of their site.
3. Despite my initial misgivings, Tagworld holds that they do indeed have a strong, self-motivated, interest in working to get the winner of the contest into the movie.
4. Their songwriting contest has already received several hundred submissions. I find it surprising that they’d get so many so quickly, but maybe people are submitting non-Snakes themed songs that they’ve written previously. I hope that when the songs are put up for a vote, the winners will clearly have been written directly for the movie. Again, if you’re submitting songs there I’d love to see them here as well.

All previous Movie News.

“Snakes on a Plane Facts with Daryl - Did you know that the world’s first commercial airliner could only carry one passenger?”

The guys at Rear Window Radio put on a weekly radio show, this week they’ve done a Snakes on a Plane themed episode. It’s got some regular music, a few Snakes on a Plane songs that we’ve listed before (they even got most of the bands’ permission!), a few Snakes on a Plane facts, and a lot of general fun.  It’s a three hour long loop so tune in and enjoy.  You know, if you like Snakes on a Plane and streaming radio.

Check out the stream all week at Live365.

Damn you Fark, you’re taking away my fun.

Ok, not really. I actually submitted this idea to Fark a few weeks ago as well… they just don’t like me. One of Fark’s most recent photoshop contests was: The most important photoshop ever: Design a “Snakes on a Plane” movie poster. They have a lot of really good work, it puts some of the previous efforts to shame. I currently don’t have the time, but hopefully I’ll get a chance to archive all the photoshops and when I do they’ll be here.

Enjoy.

All previous Fan Graphics.

Absolute Punk has a good interview (warning: some spoilers) with a Production Assistant who worked on one day of filming on Snakes on a Plane. Yes, one whole day. Not only that, but it was day that didn’t involve any snakes, didn’t involve any airplanes, and focused on a white guy on a motorcycle, and some Korean gangsters. I know, it sounds like a totally different movie.

The full interview has some plot spoilers beyond what I’ve just said, so if you’re looking to keep yourself out of the loop, you should skip this story. Here’s a few non-spoiler quotes to give you an idea of the content:

What can you tell us about the movie?
Well, i was actually around for a good part of the filming that day and i can give you the inside scoop on the scenes that were filmed that day

Fantastic!
Okay, basically what was filmed was this: one of the main actors rode around on a dirt bike for a bit

…

I see. I see.
Sadly there were no snakes on the day i was there. But my father who worked in lighting on the project worked on the plane WITH the snakes. So he saw some definite snake and Sammy J action.

…

elemenohpe asks: How many Keenan & Kel / All That jokes were made on the set?
Well, another PA i worked with told me that Kenan was joking around quite a bit but I’m not sure there was any mention of Kel. I think Kenan is more interested with current endeavours than he is with his past with Kel

DroppedUrPocket asks: Did Samuel L Jackson get with all the white bitches on the set?
I assume he got with many bitches of varying ethnicities.

All previous Movie News.

From my Inbox today:

In the spirit of the [TagWorld contest], I have made a plantive ballad about Snakes On A Plane. I share with you the heartache, the motherfucking sorrow, and most of all the human spirit that swells within us when we think of Snakes… On a Plane….

This guy certainly gets credit for being the first song-writer to use the phrase “No Fly Zone” and succesfully rhyme it within the song:

Snakes on a Plane (Solo Accoustic) by The Jesus Candy

I would love if anyone else submitting songs to the TagWorld contest would submit them here as well, it’s nice to keep tabs.

All previous Fan Songs

I previously collected a bunch of LiveJournal Icons together for your Snakes on a Plane enjoyment, but the release the trailer a few days ago seems to have prompted a new surge of artwork. A lot of them came from grrliz_icons, but the rest were found in the wild. Enjoy:

Yeah, I know, animation, I’m sorry. I suppose it’s part of the charm of LiveJournal. Anyway, if you liked these, you should check out my first collection of Snakes on a Plane LiveJournal Icons.

Oh, and I’m back from vacation now, but I missed a lot of stuff this weekend, so it may take me a day or two to catch back up. Please bear with me.

All previous Fan Art.

Ok, you may have thought I was famous when I was interviewed by the AP, but now I’ve made the big time. Me and Snakes on a Blog are in March 16th edition of The Voice, a newspaper at Langara College in Vancouver. If you browse your way over to Page 10, you’ll find an article entitled “Snakes conquer plane, Internet” (the title made me chuckle), nestled in amongst such page-turners as “Students turn to trendy tea” and, my personal favorite, “Students say college is good place to form new friendships.”

Anyway, gentle joking aside, you can give the article a read if you’re industrious, here it is in all it’s PDF majesty.

Snakes conquer plane, Internet by Andrea Buchko

Enjoy.