January 30, 2013 at 5:54 p.m.
'Snakes' goes down in hype hiss-tory
Most of all, we'll know whether anyone cared enough to see this movie, or if they just liked the title.
If you are over 30, or do not spend half your life online, allow me to explain some background.
Eight years ago, a producer named Craig Berenson optioned the movie rights to a largely ignored screenplay called Venom. The original script had only one snake in it, but a revised script added a few hundred more snakes to the plot (an assassin unloads the snakes on a plane to kill a witness to a crime).
The new script went through a torturous development process on its way to being made into a movie. At one point, it was sold to MTV just before the terror attacks on 9/11, which killed any movie project that involved people being terrorized on an airplane.
Eventually, it found a home at New Line Cinema, where a screenwriter named Josh Friedman was asked if he wanted to help on the script. He was so intrigued by the title that he went home and started writing a regular blog on this strange movie title.
That started the Internet buzz on Snakes on a Plane, which ran unabated for an entire year. To its credit, the studio pretty much stayed out of the way of this online phenomenon, although it later sent "Snakes-related" material to a popular Website called snakesonablog.com, which was started by 26-year-old Georgetown University law student Brian Finklestein.
Finklestein's site, which he insisted was created in an attempt to secure tickets to the movie's premiere, became the focal point for everyone who wanted to talk online about Snakes on a Plane. Nearly 1 million people have visited his site since Finklestein started it in January.
By the way, his efforts were not in vain. New Line Cinema rewarded their new best friend with a free trip to Los Angeles and tickets to last week's premiere. With the exception of the modest amount of studio-supplied movie paraphernalia, the promotional build-up to Friday's opening was purely fan and Internet-driven.
And they all seemed to be motivated by one thing - that silly title. Finklestein called it the "perfect storm of movie titles," because it includes everything you could want in a movie title.
Title talks
A New Line Cinema executive told me that the title not only tells you everything you need to know about the plot, but it informs you about what kind of a movie you are about to see. "That title tells you that you are about to see the ultimate summer popcorn movie, the kind of movie that allows you to shut off your brain, buy a big box of popcorn and scream along with the rest of the crowd.
Which begs the question: How much do all these Internet fans want to see the actual movie?
There has been much talk in the media recently about the entertainment choices of the young. For them, it's not just a matter of movies vs. TV. They have a variety of options, and one of their favourite options is the Internet.
Making fun of a movie called Snakes on a Plane in the comfort of your own home is one thing. Going all the way to the theatre is an entirely different matter.
Could this really be the movie that gets this younger generation out of the house and into movie theatres again? And, even if they do come out this time, does it mean that they'll come out for other movies?
Surely, this has become one of the most interesting debates in movie history.
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