I bet you thought all the interviews were done, but I’ve got one last one for you. I got in touch with Keith Dallas who played “Big Leroy” (hell of a character name) in Snakes on a Plane and he agreed to do a quick interview. And to remind you of who he is, he included a few snazzy picture of himself on the set of Snakes on a Plane including shots of him with Samuel L. Jackson, Kenan Thompson, Elsa Pataky, David Ellis, Byron Lawson and more:

Snakes on a Blog: Tell us a little bit about yourself?

Keith Dallas: I was born in Jamaica, I’m a real simple dude, LOVE comic books, love martial arts movies, loved the Matrix, one of my favorite martial arts movies was called “Berry Gordy’s the Last Dragon”

SoaB: What effect has Snakes on a Plane had on your career?

KD: The effect snakes has had on my career hasn’t been all that much, I get recognized a lot from it, I get recognized a lot still from Romeo Must Die and other stuff I did. I’ve also booked 2 t.v. series that I’m one of the leads in, one is called blood ties and that’ll be out in march, you should be seeing the billboard on sunset one of these days and the others called intelligence, blood ties is about vampires and intelligence is about drug deals and mafia, that kinda thing.

SoaB: Your character’s name in the movie was Big Leroy, did you come up with
any sort of backstory for him? Or a last name?

KD: There’s no real back story on Leroy, he was homeboys with Triple G’s back in the day, mo better friends with the Troy character, oh yeah, they did come up with a last name for Big Leroy, Dubois, go figure, I dunno, I felt my chracter was important to state the fact that black people can be hurt in film and not die, we needed light comedy in the film, thats what I was trying to bring, also sometimes brothas have to work harder to make an impact and I think I kinda did, I went to the premiere, when I said that line “Now that’s what i’m talkin’ about,” Hollywood lost it, it was an uproar of laughter, I was shocked, I wasn’t really aware until my friends started coming up to me and telling me I was gonna be a star and how this movie’s following is phenomenall HUGE, that’s when I kinda started to go online and see some things, not much though, I actually started seeing more once the movie was over, like, I started actually really checking out these sites.

SoaB: Were you involved with any of the reshoots to bring the movie from a PG13 to an R? Did it improve the film?

KD: I was involved with the reshoots, I had to reshoot me getting bit and screaming, I tried swearing when that happened and David Ellis said we can’t swear we only have a like 2 swear words and I think we should give ‘em to Sam, I’m like, alright cool, then they called me to do the re-shoots and they’re like, swear your head offf, cuss like u ain’t cussed in your life, David fed me lines like “get this brokeback snake off my ass” “get this motherfuckin’ snake off me!” stuff like that, do I think it made the film better….100%

SoaB: Does Samuel L. Jackson swear as much in real life as he does in film?

KD: Sam Jackson in real life is a cool dude, for real, seriously a nice guy, but when he don’t want to be talked to, you know it, just by looking at him, he’s not shy to let you know he’s chillin’, nice guy, he cusses, but he knows how to be respectful around people, like ladies and stuff, like he’s not gonna be cussing in the middle of a room filled with the younger kids from the movie.

SoaB: How about Kenan Thompson?

KD: Kenan is a big EVERYTHING as far as personality, I can hands down tell you he was the funniest guy on set, INCLUDING Sam and Flex, Flex THOUGHT he was funny, but he really wasn’t, I think Flex thought he was Three G’s for REAL, lol.

SoaB: What was it like acting with the snakes? Did you have a favorite snake?

KD: it wasn’t hard acting with the snakes, I actually wasn’t around them all that much, my favorite snake was “kitty” she was huge and I loved her, she was HEAVY, took like 12 of us to lift her

SoaB: Did being in the film give you any practical advice for what you should do if you ever found yourself in a plane with real snakes?

KD: If I was on a plane with real snakes I would start stomping and chopping, any advice if it happens to anyone on a plane, if you survive, sue the airline and get rich as hell.

SoaB: If you had to pick one person to be trapped on a plane with snakes, who would it be?

KD: Who would I like to see trapped with snakes in real life, hmm………….Flex Alexander, yeah, Flex.

SoaB: Did you have a favorite line from the film?

KD: My favorite line from the movie was when the captain was talkin’ about goin’ down faster than a thai hooker, I was in tears.

SoaB: What do you think the best title for a sequel would be?

KD: Snakes in the Pen: Sam goes to jail and some of us follow and they release snakes in the penitentiary, also Snakes in the Asylum, we all go crazy from what happened and get locked up and the snakes follow and kill us and all the crazy people, that’s what I’d call the sequels.

SoaB: Is there anything else interesting you’d like to say about the movie experience?

KD: Anything interesting……..hmm………. OH, before we started filming we kinda walked around set and met the stunt people and the props people and stuff, they showed me a fake snake they were gonna be putting on the plane, I said, you know what would be a good idea is if a snake is coming after me, leaping at me and I do a roundhouse kick while it’s coming at me, I was doing alot more martial arts back then, so we tried it out, they threw one at me and I roundhoused it 2 feet across the damn room, the props guys LOVED it, they said they were gonna show it to the stunt coordinator then David and try and have it put n the movie, no such luck, damn that woulda been sweet, I don’t even know if it ever even got to David to see, lol, well, that’s about it man, sorry my answers are so bunced together but in a bit of a rush.

A few days ago when discussing the fact that Elsa Pataky had appeared in Maxim, I mentioned that I had sent her ‘management team’ a set of questions and I hadn’t heard back from them. They’ve found the time to respond and here is our final pre-film interview. First, here’s a few pictures of Elsa Pataky on and off the set to give you an idea of who we’re talking to:

And now, the interview:

Snakes on a Blog: First of all, tell us a little bit about yourself. Who you are, where you grew up, what your acting background is… basic biographical stuff.

Elsa Pataky: I’m Elsa Pataky. I was born and raised in Madrid, Spain. I am a well-known actress in my country, and I have starred in over 10 Spanish films. I live currently live in Spain and L.A.

Read the rest of this entry »

When Christa Faust, author of the novelization of Snakes on a Plane, last spoke with us, she indicated that she did not yet own any Snakes on a Plane shirts. I believe that both Damnation and Shelflife were kind enough to send her samples, and Christa sent in a picture of herself in Fiji wearing one of Damnation’s designs:

Also on the Christa Faust front, an annoyingly spread-out interview with her has been posted by Jason Boog at ThePublishingSpot in a series of posts: Question 1, Question 2, Question 3, and Question 4. I think there’s one more question coming, so check the comments for an updated link.

Since I still think that Christa gave us the best interview, and she was cool enough to send in a picture of herself wearing her new shirt, I’ll pimp her original writing one more time: Hoodtown.

So, it took me a while to put these online and get a link up to the them. I apologize for the delay. Here are the remaining interviews from Comic-Con:

Samuel L. Jackson interviewed by SnakesonaBlog.com
Kenan Thompson interviewed by SnakesonaBlog.com	Jule Sylvester interviewed by SnakesonaBlog.com	David Ellis interviewed by SnakesonaBlog.com
Samuel L. Jackson interviewed by Blogger Roundtable	Jules Sylvester interviewed by Blogger Roundtable	David Ellis interviewed by Blogger Roundtable

You’ve seen some of these before (specifically the second row) but I thought it would be nice to have them all located in one location for easy viewing. The sound is a little bit low on the Jules Sylvester roundtable interview, we were trying to be quiet while Samuel L. Jackson was being interviewed by another media organization. I haven’t been able to find the time to write up transcripts of these interviews yet… if someone is feeling industrious, and would like to make transcripts, I’d appreciate it.

All previous Fan Interviews.

Newsrama is running a two part, long interview with Snakes on a Plane writer John Heffernan: Part 1 and Part 2.  They call him John HefferMan, but let’s not hold a grudge, ok?  Actually, I was supposed to send him some questions after he wrote the lengthy description of how he got involved with the film but I got distracted and never got around to it.  Oh well, I suppose the Newsrama interview pretty much covers anything I would have asked.  It’s my own fault for being slow.  Damn real-life responsibilites.

I’m going to slowly get these interviews online. Here are my one-on-one interviews with Jules Sylvester (the snake wrangler) and David Ellis. These were recorded by a professional videographer, so they probably look better than my Kenan Thompson interview. I’ll try to get transcripts for all of these online at some point, but for now, here’s this:

David Ellis (Director)

Jules Sylvester (Snake Wrangler)

All previous Fan Interviews.

Today was my big day at Comic-Con. Here’s what I did:

• Interviewed Sam Jackson 1 on 1.
• Interviewed Sam Jackson at a blogger roundtable.
• Interviewed the Snake Wrangler 1 on 1.
• Interviewed the Snake Wrangler at a blogger roundtable.
• Interviewed David Ellis 1 on 1.
• Interviewed David Ellis at a blogger roundtable.
• Interviewed Kenan Thompson 1 on 1.
• Attended the Snakes on a Plane presentation.

The interviews all went pretty well, I barely started crying at all. I’ll be posting video for most of them next week, but I have one of the videos right now: my 1 on 1 with Kenan Thompson. It’s 10 minutes long and covers a lot of fan-submitted questions. Highlights include Kenan’s impression of Bill Cosby encountering Snakes on a Plane and a rapper who meanders in and hands Kenan a postcard. I’ll get a transcript up next week:

Kenan Thompson talks about Snakes on a Plane

New Line’s presentation was interesting… after a few non-SoaP related presentations (which the crowd was generally NOT into) we got to the meat of the presentation. There’s lenghty coverage at AICN and I feel loathe to retype it. Go here and read their full review of the evening.

Here’s the short version: New Line opened with a few minutes with Jules the snake wrangler followed by a few minutes with David Ellis. This was good, but then they moved into a full 10 minutes of film. This was not an extended trailer but a 10 minute chunk from the center of the film. There were snakes, there was swearing, there was snake whipping, there was bite after bite after bite… it was good.

Following the 10 minutes of film Samuel L. Jackson entered in the dark yelling his infamous line. The crowd went crazy. He sat down with Kenan Thompson, Jules the snake wrangler, and David Ellis for the best Q&A I’ve ever heard. It was hysterical the full way through. IGN is supposed to post a video of the Q&A, but I can’t find it on their site. Let me know if you find it anywhere?

I’ve been asked not to post the 10 minute clip from the film. Sigh.

UPDATED at 6:27pm - The video is now working.

My Comic-Con interview schedule is getting crowded. At the last minute they’ve arranged for me to sit down for a few short minutes with Kenan Thompson. What should I ask him?

I’m going to have the sweatiest clothes ever.

I’m officially flying out to San Diego tomorrow, so I might have a hard time making non-Comic-Con related posts for a little while. Keep the emails coming, but I suspect I’m going to be busy, so please grant me a little bit of leeway in posting and responding.

Ok, everybody, in addition to Samuel L. Jackson, I will also be sitting down with David Ellis for five minutes and with the snake wrangler (I believe it’s this guy) for five minutes.  What should I ask them?

As some of you know, this year’s Comic-Con will feature both David Ellis and Samuel L. Jackson. Yesterday my travel plans were officially finalized and I would like to announce that I will be there as well. New Line is aware of the power that blogs have had in promoting this movie and they wanted to give those blogs a chance to interact directly with the stars… of course, there’s too many of you for that to be practical, so New Line has asked me to attend Comic-Con as your representative… sort of as a mouthpiece for the online community.

So now’s your chance, what do you want to ask Samuel L. Jackson?

I’ll be sitting down with Samuel L. Jackson himself (side note, I’m totally terrified about this) and asking him questions. As with our previous collaborative interviews, I’m not smart enough to actually come up with questions myself, so I need your help. Submit your questions in the comments below.

New Line has agreed to capture full audio/video of the event and if you provide your name/email/mailing address/website they’ll provide you with a full audio/video response from the man himself.   (If you’re uncomfortable posting that information in the comments, feel free to email the question to me off the record.)

Since this opportunity is available to all bloggers out there (beyond my normal readership), there might be more questions than I can possibly ask. As usual, I’ll sort for clarity and content and will present the best questions. No guarantees that your question will get answered, but I’ll do my best.

Alright, what should I ask?

I’ve really enjoyed these last few interviews, so I’ve got one more set up for you. John Heffernen, original screenwriter of Snakes on a Plane, is interested in answering your questions. We’ll go through the same drill, submit questions in the comments below, I’ll sort them for quality and then send them off to be answered. Even though there’s going to be a lot of text below this pargraph, please submit questions for John in the comments.

Now, John felt that there was a lot of background information about the film and his involvement that should be in the public record, so in the interest of creating a better understanding of how Snakes on a Plane came into being, he wrote up a statement detailing his involvement with the film. It’s long, but it’s interesting and it sets up a pretty good timeline which will answer a lot of basic questions. Here we go:

Snakes On A Plane: A (not so) Brief History by John Heffernan

To all you Snakesonaplaniacs out there:

My name is John Heffernan and I’m the original writer and one of the creators of the “most anticipated movie of the year” and my pride and joy, Snakes On A Plane. I want to start off by personally thanking Brian for his tireless work on his awesome website and for all of the fans who have contributed to this incredible phenomenon. SoaP would not be the most powerful force in the movie universe if weren’t for you guys, and I sincerely consider you all to be co-creators of this film. I mean it. Thank you.

The reason I contacted snakesonablog to write this chronicle was to fill you in on the history of the project and how it came to be. I’ve done and read a lot of interviews and seen a lot of media coverage, but no one interview or news report could possibly provide all the details of the project’s (if you’ll pardon the pun) serpentine journey through the labyrinth of Hollywood… or mention all of the unsung heroes behind the film’s progression from high concept to finished product. So I thought I’d take the initiative to fill in those gaps for those who were curious. If you’re interested, read on.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I asked you for questions that I could pose to Christa Faust, author of the Snakes on a Plane novelization. Today I received our answers… and they’re good. First off, to give you an idea of who we’re talking to, this is Christa Faust (click on a picture to see her life-sized):

You can also check out her webpage for more information about her or her flickr site for more pictures. Ok, here goes the interview:

Snakes on a Blog: You’ve done a number of novelizations of films, how did you get into that?

Christa Faust: I was contacted by UK publisher Black Flame, the company currently putting out New Line tie ins and novelizations. Apparently more than one friend of mine had recommended me for the job, knowing I was a whore who would do pretty much anything for money. I found that I really enjoy the work. I love having a job that allows me to make a living writing about snakes on a plane.

SoaB: How many people buy an average novelization of a film like, let’s say, Final Destination 3?

CF: I have no idea. I’m paid a flat rate per book so a novelization which sells millions of copies pays the same as one that only my mom bought. Too bad, since I suspect SOAP is going to be my bestselling book of all time. If just one tenth of those people would also buy one of my original novels like HOODTOWN, I’d be a very happy girl.

SoaB: What was your initial reaction was when New Line approached you to do this novelization?

CF: First off, it was not New Line, but my editor over at Black Flame who offered me the project. I had already done several other New Line projects for Black Flame and when they asked me to do SOAP (then titled Pacific Air Flight 121) I was highly amused by the premise but the major fan buzz hadn’t really gotten rolling yet so I didn’t really know what I was in for.

SoaB: Was it your goal going in to create a novel so awesome that it made the books of Charles Dickens look like the books of Charles Barkley - or did it just happen naturally?

CF: All my shit is that good, naturally.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I asked for questions to pose to David Ellis. I forwarded the best off to David Ellis, and today we have our response (it’s long, so I’m going to cut it in two, be sure to follow the link to read the full post):

Snakes on a Blog: How is it that you manage to kick SO MUCH ass? Is it a surplus of free time, or genes?

David Ellis: I love what I do, and that helps keep me going. Also when I was young I was bitten by pure radioactive KICKASS.

SoaB: You weren’t the first director to work on the project, how did you get involved? Did you have any hesitations about signing on to this film? What was most appealing about it?

DE: I got involved when New Line asked me to do it, when Ronnie Yu dropped off. I had just completed Cellular for them at that time. As for hesitations, absolutely, but then I remembered I had bills to pay, and it was a no-brainer. I found the concept really appealing- people trapped in a confined space with crazed snakes on the loose. Who wouldn’t love that?

SoaB: How many people laughed/looked at you with stunned faces when you told them you were directing a movie called Snakes on a Plane?

DE: I lost count long ago.

SoaB: Were you ever embarrassed about it?

DE: Yeah, but thanks to the internet it is now cool to be the director of SOAP.

SoaB: Are you expecting a lot of negative criticism from the critics who are looking for something in this movie OTHER than Snakes on a Plane with Samuel L Jackson? If so, would your response to them be Kiss My Asp?

DE: If they don’t get that the movie is about snakes on a plane, with Samuel L Jackson, I don’t know what to tell them. They can certainly kiss my asp.

Read the rest of this entry »

Talking about the novelization of Snakes on a Plane earlier today got me thinking about what an odd experience it must have been to write such a thing.  The author of the novelization, Chrisa Faust, has done a number of other novelizations as well as a good deal of her own work AND has agreed to answer a few questions.

What should I ask her?

Bruce James plays the effiminate flight attendant Ken and took the time to, well, interview himself:

Ken’s…let’s just say he’s not the most masculine person. Because he’s a male flight attendant it’s easy to play into a stereotype, and I really didn’t want to just be “that guy”. I think he’s much more rounded. Don’t get me wrong though, he’s also a freakin riot. I had a blast playing him, mostly because I adopted the idea that he doesn’t take his job all that seriously, so I WAS having a great time…until all these snakes show up…then Kenny’s incapable nature starts to shine. It was a real challenge to play someone who I KNEW would not be able to handle a situation like this, and force him to try to get through it.

Also, we find out that Samuel L. Jackson does not, in fact, kill the flight attendant. It seems like he restricts his killing to snakes. I suppose that’s ok.

UPDATE: Here’s part 2.

Yesterday I posted an interview with Agam “iPod Girl” Darshi based in large part on questions suggested by readers.  As many of you know, David Ellis (director of Snakes on a Plane) reads, and occasionally comments, on this site. I figured it might be fun to do something similar with him. I checked with David Ellis and both he, and his daughter/producing partner Tawny Ellis, would be happy to answer questions.

However, since I’m fairly uncreative, I need help coming up with questions. Post your questions for David Ellis and his daughter Tawny in the comments below. I’ll take the best questions, forward them along, and post the responses next week.

I’m expecting some good work from you people. Let’s make this a good interview.

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 »