Samuel L. Jackson the snake charmer

[KiwiCoromandel]

Samuel L. Jackson is starring in one of the most internet-hyped films of all time, Snakes on a Plane. There's no rhyme or reason about why there's such a buzz on this as-yet-unseen-film, but the name says it all.

"I was sitting at home reading the trades and I came across this film title. I emailed Ronny Yu, who was supposed to direct it, and I asked him if it was a euphemism for anything else or if it was really about snakes on a plane. And he said, 'Yeah, it's poisonous snakes let loose on a plane'. I was like, 'Oh cool! Can I be in it?' "

Jackson's booming voice breaks into laughter in the up-market Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. "I never even saw a script. Didn't have to. It's just a concept. Snakes on a plane, and then you put me in that kind of mix and what I've done and the characters I've played, then you have the hype. There's the story."

At least Jackson isn't window dressing the obvious low-brow element to this much-awaited movie. "It's not Snakes on Brokeback Mountain. It's just snakes on a plane. You either want to see it or you don't."

At 57, Jackson is still one of Hollywood's "coolest" actors and is as famous for his diverse hairstyles in each movie as he is for his penchant for cursing through just about every one of his 107 films. With the exception of Star Wars, Jackson is most famously known for his tough-guy roles in Pulp Fiction (for which he earned an Oscar nomination), Shaft, or Rules of Engagement.

Jackson never got within reach of a snake during filming. "We had to have CGI and rubber snakes. In the film there's a lot of chaos and people running. The only people who worked with real snakes were the stunt people who knew how to move around them. There were 200-400 snakes lying around the floor at any time. I'd hate to have had the job of the guy who had to count them and keep up with them at all times."

Does Jackson harbour any phobias about snakes? "No. No phobias, other than unemployment." If that's Jackson's worst fear, he must sleep well at night. As one of Hollywood's most prolific actors, he has several films in the making. "People think I'm a workaholic. I don't describe myself that way. But I love to work, I love to be on movie sets - that's where I feel most at home."

Jackson has been married for 25 years to actress LaTanya Richardson, with whom he worked recently in Freedomland. "LaTanya works when she feels like it. My daughter just finished cooking school. She's grown up now and lives in New York. They both come to visit me on set wherever I am. We have it pretty good."

Pretty good is pretty much an understatement. Jackson can pick and choose his projects, and because of the reaction from internet fans, the audience seems to love Jackson's persona.

In fact, in an unprecedented case, Newline Films reshot some of the scenes after a fan on the internet created an audio trailer for Snakes on a Plane featuring Jackson screaming the expletive with which he has become synonymous: "I want these mother**** snakes off the mother**** plane!"

It would seem that Snakes on a Plane has revolutionised the rules of marketing for the do-it-yourself digital era. "The smartest thing NewLine did was to leave it to the people. When fans started making [snakes on a Plane] T-shirts, they didn't start shouting about copyright infringement. They even had to change the title [from a sober Pacific Flight 121] after we saw what was happening on the internet. It's now one of the best movie titles ever."

Jackson seems as passionate about his much-loved hobby, golf, as he is about his career. "It's in my contract that I have to play twice a week when I'm working. It's usually easy unless it's Toronto in the dead of winter. Occasionally they'll say, 'Hey Samuel, you can get on a plane and go and play golf today'. And I'll do it.

"When we did Rules of Engagement in Morocco they found me a nine-hole pseudo-golf course in the desert. I didn't care. I play golf every day when I'm not working. I get up at 5.30 and go to the golf course. I can't complain about much. It's all good."

source:LOWDOWN

image:reuters:Samuel L. Jackson was the perfect choice for "Snakes on a Plane" one of the most internet-hyped movies to be released this year.

[KiwiCoromandel]

Fear of Snakes?....

So far, no one except maybe director David R. Ellis has seen the New Line horror-thriller Snakes on a Plane, but ComingSoon.net recently caught up with some of the cast as well as snake handler Jules Sylvester to talk to them about the actual snakes in the movie.

But first, we had to get a better idea what the movie was about and why the "snakes" are on the "plane" in the first place. That honor went to Nathan Phillips, best known as Ben in last year's Aussie thriller Wolf Creek, who explained the general premise. "My character Sean Jones is just an American chilling out on the island and sees the death of a prosecutor by Eddie Kim, who is just a horrible man, gets home and finds out on the TV that this guy is into police corruption. Given the proposition to do the right thing, I'm given the mission to save the day, fly to L.A. with Samuel Jackson, and it should be a simple as Simon Says. Of course, Eddie Kim smuggled the snakes on the plane and the pheromones in the air-conditioning vents are making the snakes be on crack, and basically, snakes on crack are for the rest of the film. They kill everyone, first class, coach, they don't care."

more.........

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=16028

images:comingsoon.net....we got mutha-f$%&*#g snakes!

[KiwiCoromandel]

Fans sink fangs into 'Snakes on a Plane'......

To hear some punsters tell it, it's time for Hollywood to "kick asp."

After endless parodies, Weblogs, videos, books, news reports and T-shirts, "Snakes on a Plane" finally opens in the US on Friday with no one knowing quite what to expect from the super-hyped film other than a story about reptiles patrolling a panicky passenger jet.

There have been no advance showings of the US$30 million dollar movie after an amazing run of publicity that seems to have the whole wired world contributing ideas to flesh out a story from an intriguing title - a title producers once seriously thought of changing because it gave the plot away.

Smart moviegoers usually avoid a film released without advance screenings because it can indicate a studio knows the movie is bad. But "Snakes" is unusual. People who have never seen it already call themselves "fans" and many hope it will be awful.

For about a year, bloggers and Web-surfing moviegoers have built a groundswell of excitement for the action flick about an FBI agent protecting a witness whom the Mafia tries to kill via snake bite on a long flight, turning the movie into a pop-culture phenomenon.

"I really think we're on unprecedented territory," said David Waldon, author of "Snakes on a Plane: The Guide to the internet Sensation," which was published in July.

"You see movies that are hyped like this or even bigger, but almost all of them are based on things that already have a bond with the public, like the 'Star Wars' trilogy."

The internet hoopla started with a single entry on screenwriter Josh Friedman's blog last year.

The film's star, Samuel L. Jackson, threatened to quit when the studio considered changing the title, saying he'd taken the job based on the name. Friedman lauded Jackson, arguing those four words succinctly provided both a name and plot summary, and gave a good indication of its genre.

More than that, he wrote, the title captured the idea of being forced to face situations we dread. No one trapped mid-flight with a bunch of slithering killers can walk away.

The blog's readers and readers of those readers' blogs agreed. In 1999 the internet buzzed with anticipation of the opening of "The Blair Witch Project." But Friedman's wildfire spread even farther, thanks to fan-created videos posted on YouTube.com, where anyone can post videos shorter than 10 minutes, and the social connection site MySpace.com, where the mostly young users create individualized pages.

"I'm not sure there would have been a phenomenon without these sites," said Waldon. "It's kind of a new wave of do-it-yourself 'Internetting.'"

One video mocked typically flashy trailers for action movies with the words "One man will rise to thwart the evil which can only be described as evil," streaking across a screen, followed by drawings of a man shooting a snake atop a plane. Another was a music video called "Baby, baby, baby (Shed yo' skin)," while others had titles such as "Cats on a Plane," and "Snakes on an Elevator."

On blogs and videos, fans invented lines for Jackson, including "I've had it with these snakes on this plane," which they peppered with an obscenity that Jackson used heavily in his break-out role in "Pulp Fiction."

In the past, media companies have squashed such practices on copyright grounds, but New Line Cinema, the Time Warner Inc. subsidiary that is distributing "Snakes," has embraced the hype and the producers even included the line in the movies and used it in previews.

Georgetown University law student Brian Finkelstein, founder of the popular "Snakes on a Blog" website was sure he'd be sued. Instead, New Line's Executive Vice President of New Media Marketing, Gordon Paddison, called to thank him.

One fan, though, seems finished with all the hype. The original blogger, Friedman, declined to be interviewed for this article and gave up blogging about "Snakes" for a while, instead writing about his struggles with cancer.

"Look, people. I get it. I'm a great disappointment to you all. We had a few giggles, shared some digital sushi and Diet Coke, we made New Line an extra fifty million dollars and had a good time doing it," he recently wrote. "Cancer can only kill you but a funny blog entry can make Dr. Pepper shoot from your nose."

source: REUTERS

image:jeffcarlson:snakes on a plane...