There’s a mini-war on Comedy Central for the most insertions of Snakes on a Plane references into a fake news show. The Daily Show opened with a quick George Bush impression, followed by two return shots from The Colbert Report. Now The Daily Show has evened things up:

Who’s going to be next?

Does anybody have video of this?

UPDATE 6/26/06 at 11:40am:  Got a link from the NYTimes today and it’s hammering my servers.  I’ve shortened the length of the front page from 20 stories to 9 to help combat the server stress.  I’ll change it back in a few days.  Please accept my apologies for temporary service disruptions over the next day.  Refreshing a few times should solve all problems.

You thought Stephen Colbert had gotten Snakes on a Plane out of his system. You thought that, but you were wrong. Here’s the Colbert Report’s second reference:

“I am in love with this motherfucking snake.”

It’s a .WMV file, someone will probably post this on YouTube soon, go ahead and post the YouTube link in the comments.

The upcoming issue of Fangoria Magazine features a gory picture on the cover which I think is from Snakes on a Plane. It’s actually tough to tell. The snake in the picture has a dropshadow which means it was probably added on top of the photo… anybody know if this picture is from the movie? (Also, it’s gross, beware…)

UPDATE Posted 6/17/06 at 9:49am: After hearing from somebody involved with the production of the movie I can say that this is indeed a photograph of an extra from the film.  Gross.

Today I present a Snakes on a Blog first, an authentic interview with a member of the cast of Snakes on a Plane. Agam Darshi plays the unforgettably named iPod Girl and she was kind enough to answer a few questions. The most important thing that you’ll learn from this interview is that iPod Girl doesn’t carry an iPod at all, but some sort of Dell MP3 player… shocking!

Here’s a few pictures of Agam to give you an idea of who we’re talking to.

Anyway, here’s the full email interview, make sure to read the rest after the break:

SnakesonaBlog (SoaB): First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Adam Darshi (AD): I was born in Birmingham England and raised in Canada. I grew up in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, San Jose for a bit, and now Vancouver. I studied theatre at the University of Calgary, but never really thought about it as a profession until I moved to Vancouver and got an agent. Since then things have been going fairly well and I’ve been focusing on it more and more ever since.

Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I guess it was bound to happen. A comic book writer named Chuck Dixon announced on his webpage that he was going to be writing the official Snakes on a Plane Comic Book. Comic Book sites picked up the story, and now we know:

SNAKES ON A PLANE #1 & 2
Written by Chuck Dixon
Art by Gordon Purcell
Photo covers
Issue #1 Variant cover by J.G. Jones
Issue #2 Variant cover by Jerome Moore

You’ve heard the Internet buzz…seen the hair-raising trailer…now experience the comic of the sensational summer movie Snakes on a Plane, written by Chuck Dixon (NIGHTWING) with art by Gordon Purcell and painted covers by J.G. Jones (52) and Jerome K. Moore!

Snakes on a Plane stars Samuel L. Jackson as an FBI agent assigned to escort a government witness on a flight to Los Angeles. But when a crimelord sets loose hundreds of deadly snakes during the flight, the agent must band together with the pilot, frightened crew and passengers in a desperate attempt to survive and protect his witness!

There are mother$%#@!! Snakes On The mother$%#@!! Plane!

Retailers please note: Each issue will feature two covers; see order form for details.

Issue #1 on sale August 16; issue #2 on sale August 30 (1 & 2 of 2) 32 pg, FC, $2.99 US MATURE READERS

You can read a lot more about this at Newsarama, including an interview with the writer and artist.

MTV has a story about the filming of the official Snakes on a Plane music video by a band called, ironically or appropriately, Cobra Starship.

“We actually didn’t want to make it too literal about snakes on a plane, so we used a metaphor of snakes being like shady dudes,” Saporta said.

“Like in the [music] industry, like snakes in suits in the back of the plane,” Beckett added. “That way it’s not completely just a joke.”

McCoy’s verse, for instance, begins, “Ladies and gentlemen, snakes are slitherin’/ With dollar signs in their eyes and tongues so reptilian.”

“I don’t think any rapper has used reptilian in a verse, so I’m gonna pat myself on my back,” McCoy joked.

Uh, well, ok… anyway, there’s also a slideshow of photos from the music video and a video story about it. Enjoy… you know, if this seems at all appealing to you.

Here’s a clip from the Colbert report a few nights ago where, in his “Threatdown,” the number one threat was conservationists, and he took the following sidetrack into the question of what would happen if Frogs were to get loose on a plane?  Yeah, you guessed it, Frogs on a Plane.  It’s got swearing, it’s got parody posters, it’s even got a little bit of Samuel L. Jackson:

Colbert Report Threatdown from 6/7/2006

A few days ago I posted links to a few news outlets running stories about a real snake on a plane incident. Since then, the media has (predictably) gotten really excited about the story and gotten in touch with the pilot, Monty Coles. NPR ran an interview with him, so did ABC News.

I checked with the people I can get in touch with at New Line and they swear up and down that they have nothing to do with this story. Anyway, here are some stills from the ABC piece (thanks Armitage112):

MSNBC also ran a story about him, but since you can’t link directly to a video story on MSNBC’s website, and because they have some restriction which doesn’t allow the video to play in Firefox, I’m not really interested in giving them more traffic. It’s Rita Cosby’s page if you’re really interested.

Originally posted on June 4 at 9:44am: A vigilant reader pointed out that Samuel L. Jackson will appear in the soon to be aired 2006 MTV Movie Awards wearing what appears to be Damnation’s Snakes on a Plane “MoFo” edition shirt. Here’s a few images with an annoying Getty Images logo in the way… does anyone have access to cleaner images?

Update (thanks Armitage112):

All previous Fan Clothing.

Snakes on a Plane has reached MTV 2 Canda (I was saying MTV 2, I don’t know, why, it’s MTV Canda). They’re doing a running bit where one their guys has lined up for the movie. You know, it’s like lining up for Star Wars, only this movie might actually be good. Here are the first three clips in order:

MTV Canada Clip 1

MTV Canada Clip 2

MTV Canada Clip 3

MTV Canada Clip 4

I just added the fourth video, above. Enjoy.

All previous Fan Video.

This AP story has GOT to have been planted by New Line, right?

Pilot Fights Black Snake Stowaway on Plane
Friday, June 02, 2006

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Monty Coles was 3,000 feet in the air when he discovered a stowaway peeking out at him from the plane’s instrument panel — a 4 1/2-foot black snake.

Coles had left Charleston earlier for a leisurely flight over the West Virginia countryside last Saturday in his Piper Cherokee and was preparing to land in Gallipolis, Ohio, when the snake revealed itself.

“Nothing in any of the manuals ever described anything like this,” the 62-year-old Cross Lanes resident said. But the advice given 25 years earlier from his flight instructor immediately came to mind: “No matter what happens, fly the plane.”

An attempt to swat the snake only resulted in it falling to Coles’ feet under the rudder pedals. It then darted to the other side of the cockpit.

While maintaining control of the single-engine plane with one hand, Coles grabbed the reptile behind its head with his other.

“There was no way I was letting that thing go. It coiled all around my arm, and its tail grabbed hold of a lever on the floor and started pulling,” Coles said.

The next step was to radio for emergency landing clearance.

“They came back and asked what my problem was. I told them I had one hand full of snake and the other hand full of plane. They cleared me in.”

After a smooth landing, Coles posed for pictures with the snake, then let it loose.

“That snake resides in Ohio now,” he said. “I wasn’t about to bring it home. I don’t mind snakes, but I sure like to know where they are.”

Coles said he was lucky his usual travel companions, his wife and dachshund, were not on the flight.

“If my wife had been in the plane, I wouldn’t have a wife, a plane or myself,” Coles said. “I don’t know what might have happened if Killer had been in the plane, but it sure would have been a lot more exciting

And can you believe the audacity of the AP reporter who wrote up this story and didn’t mention the movie once? What was he thinking?

Ok, here’s another AP story and this one used a little bit more sense:

Pilot Survives Real Life ‘Snake on a Plane’

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The much-talked-about movie ”Snakes on a Plane” doesn’t open until August. But Monty Coles doesn’t have to see it. He’s lived it.

3,000 feet in the air on Saturday, he discovered a four-and-a-half-foot black snake peering out at him from the instrument panel of his Piper Cherokee.

He’d already been preparing to land in southern Ohio after a flight from West Virginia.

He tried to swat the snake. But it just fell to his feet under the rudder pedals, and then darted to the other side of the cockpit.

So, while flying the plane with one hand, Coles grabbed the snake behind its head with his other hand, even as it coiled around his arm.

Next, he told the control tower he needed emergency landing clearance — and that he had ”one hand full of snake and the other hand full of plane.”

He says he was cleared right in.

Coles made a smooth landing, then posed for pictures with the snake, before letting it loose.

Snakes on a Plane was featured on the front cover of the New York version of the Metro a few weeks ago. I’m slow as hell at putting this online… Here’s a couple of rough scans. (Thanks John).

The other day I stumbled across a brief interview with Lin Shaye who plays a stewardess in the Snakes on a Plane on About.com. I bookmarked it, but when I came back the interview was missing. The best I can come up with now is this Google Cached version which probably won’t last forever, so I’m going to reproduce it in its entirety below:

Are there snakes on that plane? Oh, there are snakes. There’s MFin’ snakes on the MFin’ plane.

Did you have to reshoot anything for Snakes on a Plane? No. They actually originally asked me to and then they said they had what they needed. They were doing stuff from the snakes point of view which I think is pretty funny and they turned it into a hard R. It’s gotten such pre-press online that the fans have actually told the studio what they need to do. So they went back and made it a hard R, made it much scarier and gorier and they actually had Sam come back to vocalize, “Get the motherf***in’ snakes off the motherf***in’ plane” because fans have been going crazy with that idea.

Does he yell at you? No, but if he did he’d be scary. He is a wonderful, amazing guy and actor. He’s really what you see is what you get. He’s got huge integrity and he’s smart and funny and scary. He’s really wonderful. I think it’s going to be a fantastic film.

What kind of snakes do you deal with? A rattlesnake and I play the sort of senior stewardess on the plane and I save a baby and get bit by a rattlesnake and it’s really going to be fun. And we’re here for 2001 Maniacs which just came out on DVD and which is fabulous.

Did you do DVD extras? I’m pretty sure there is some EPK that I did. I think I did some interviews but nothing extra other than outtakes from the film and what we had already shot.

Samuel L. Jackson says he did Snakes on a Plane because the title says it all. Why did you choose it? Sort of the same reason and also I knew that the character was kind of a heroine and she’s kind of a bit of humanity in the middle of all this madness. I have a great death scene so that was really fun for an actress.

Are there more CGI or real snakes? Both. They used a lot of CGI but they did use real snakes. They had a 600 pound Burmese Cobra on set that was extraordinary. It took 10 people to hold her. It was the most beautiful creature you ever saw. I’m not afraid of snakes. I really find them fascinating and what’s interesting is they’re afraid of falling, so when you handle them, that’s kind of what that’s all about. It’s almost like doing Tai Chi. You have to move with them. They’ll make a move and you find yourself moving very gracefully and very carefully. It’s really quite an experience. They have a bad rap like sharks but they’re really amazing creatures.

And here’s the picture (by some guy named Fred Topel) that accompanied the story:

Julianna Margulies does an interview in this week’s Entertainment Weekly including a picture of her in her stewardess costume and some discussion of the movie:

I didn’t choose it because I was getting some intellectual thrill out of it… I thought it would be a hoot, it was nice to pay the mortgage, and i got to work with Sam Jackson… I’ve yet to be in a big movie. This could be big. But if not, it was a fun romp.

Alas, Entertainment Weekly does not put its content online, so here’s a scan of the relevent portions of the story (thanks Seth):

Originally Posted May 16th, 2006 at 12:38 am - For an update, skim down

I’m not entirely clear where Dateline is going with this, but I’ve gotten a few emails similar to this one:

Dateline has a new special called “To Catch a Child Predator.” On this show, they do just that. They pretend to be teen girls online and chat with old dudes and get them to meet them somewhere to catch them. The best part is that the screen name they use when pretending to be a teen girl is “snakesonagirl” the next episode airs 5/17 on NBC.

UPDATE:

Two quick updates. First I received the following email which gives a little bit of background on the story:

Hola, my name is Xavier of Perverted-Justice.com, the people who did the “chat-room trolling” for the Dateline episode you referenced. When we create our faux-minor characters, we like to give them a bit of personality. While I was struggling to come up with something new, I thought of this blog which I read pretty often and that’s why “Snakesonagirl” was mentioned on the Dateline episode, as it was my trolling name in Yahoo Florida chats.

The name helped nab three predators, one of which has had prior charges and another which brought duct tape and rope hence it was pretty useful!

On a lighter side, I was disappointed by how many moronic older males had no idea what Snakes on a Plane was. Do more media!

I’m going to claim credit for catching these people myself, somehow. Pretty neat, eh? Also, I was fortunate enough to be sent a screencapture of the story with Snakesonagirl on the screen (thanks Rick):

This morning the CBS Evening News came by and did an interview with me for a piece running probably during Saturday or Sunday evening’s newscast at either 6:00pm or 6:30pm (you’ll have to check your own schedules).

Update (5/20/06 at 10:51 am):

CBS let me know that the piece won’t air until NEXT weekend at the earliest, meaning either Saturday (5/27/06) or Sunday (5/28/06). I’ll let you know if/when I find more.

I’ve had a longish night, but I wanted to quickly provide this clip (thanks Crazymonk) from the Daily Show from last night where Jon Stewart, briefly, mentions Snakes on a Plane while doing his George Bush impression.

PS. I’m doing an interview with CBS News tomorrow morning and I’m up far too late. I’m going to have big bags under my eyes and their producer is going to yell at me.

Sunny Mabrey did a short interview a few weeks ago, but she’s now done a longer/fuller interview:

The situation is so insane. It’s not like you ever have to have a moment of… Well, people die, so I actually just played it as real as I could. There’s comedy in the movie, so it’s not like I have to make my part campy, because the parts that are scary are scary, they are terrifying, so you don’t have to make it like a Scary Movie, it’s not like one big skit or anything. It’s like a real movie. It’s funny and it’s terrifying and there’s some sad parts.

Check out the full interview.

A few weeks ago the CBC interviewed me for a radio story. The piece, similar in feel to the NPR piece, is now online (scroll down to Part II). The producer asked Roger Ebert about the comparison between Snakes on a Plane and Casablanca, unfortunately they didn’t record him scoffing at the question. At about 16 minutes in, Ebert goes on a rant about “the age of irony”:

I’m tired of the age of irony. The age of irony is just an attitude that excuses you for consuming junk as if it were worth consuming. And irony is also just an excuse to avoid doing the heavy lifting of important art, you know? If you don’t go to see great movies, or read great books, or go to great theater, or look at great television, then you don’t have to think about it and you can just master trivia. And then when you’re 35 you can sit around drinking beer with your high school buddies and, you know, chat^* your life away. People who embrace irony are living in a little bubble brained universe of lost time.

It’s possible he said “shat” or “shit” rather than “chat”, it was a little bit unclear. It sounded like “shat” but that didn’t make any sense. When asked about the quality of the title, he had this to say:

It is a good title. How about this for another title: “Hands Down the Garbage Disposal.”

If anyone can get an MP3 of this, I’d appreciate it. Ebert also makes a passing reference to Snakes on a Plane, without nearly as much anger, in his recent review of The Poseidon Adventure.

Also, if you’re bored, here’s a quick clip from WPLJ in New York where they discussed Snakes on a Plane a little bit.

Samuel L. Jackson was on Ellen on Tuesday… there’s a lot of discussion about Snakes on a Plane, as well as new video footage from the film that we haven’t seen before (as well as some behind the scenes footage) and Ellen doing three fan songs of her own (New Wave, Disco, and Heavy Metal).

Here’s part 1 and part 2.

That big snake was 20 feet long and 450 pounds.

Also, keep the contest suggestions coming.