To Andrew Calara, “Snakes on a Plane” is more than
just a summer movie. It’s his secret to victory.
This past spring, Calara, a fourth-year computer science
student, named his intramural Ultimate Frisbee team “Snakes
on a Plane,” after the upcoming thriller film starring Samuel
L. Jackson. Needless to say, Snakes on a Plane won the
championship.
“All our chants became about snakes on a plane and Samuel
L. Jackson,” Calara said. “We had the power of the
snakes behind us.”
The movie, which promises to be every bit as campy as its title,
is set up to be one of the summer’s biggest hits. And though
the film has yet to reach theaters (it opens Friday), the
widespread hype built upon a large Internet following and
revolutionary fan participation in the film’s creation has
captured more than a few UCLA students as well.
Third-year student Kai Pottenger rarely sees movies in the
theater. But he does plan to see “Snakes on a
Plane.”
“I probably pay to see two or three movies a year at the
most,” Pottenger said. “Not even
“˜Superman.'”
“Snakes on a Plane” will be the first movie he sees
in a theater this summer.
Pottenger considered filming his own version of “Snakes on
a Plane” during his 12-hour flight to Japan in June. But
plans fell through when he could not find plastic snakes.
“I don’t think the passengers on board would have
been very receptive to the idea,” Pottenger said. “And
I certainly didn’t have any room in my carry-on (for the
snakes).”
But despite the massive excitement, fans are not expecting a
quality film.
“I think I’d almost be disappointed if it’s
good,” Pottenger said.
According to Calara, low expectations will help to curb the
disappointment.
“I see no way that it can fail,” Calara said.
“Part of the appeal of the movie is that it is going to be so
bad that it’s good. If it actually turns out to be good, then
that’s even better. If it’s terrible, then people might
like it even (more).”
The lack of expectation comes partially from the fact that the
plot of the movie remains a mystery. Even the media has been kept
in the dark (hence no early film reviews).
“When you go to see a Harry Potter movie, you’ve
already read the books,” Calara said. “I think this is
definitely the first kind of movie that has drawn so much of a
following despite being an original concept.”
Unlike other highly anticipated summer films, such as
“Superman Returns” and “Pirates of the Caribbean:
Dead Man’s Chest,” “Snakes” is not based on
a novel or comic, nor is it a sequel. Fans only know two plot
elements: snakes and a plane.
But one of the film’s biggest draws is its dedicated star,
Jackson, whom Calara calls the “quintessential badass.”
Known for his tough action roles, Jackson promises to deliver what
fans want: excessive swearing and overdramatization.
The film reached out to its potential audience during
production, giving fans the opportunity to participate in the
filmmaking process in roles usually left to paid professionals. Fan
feedback was incorporated into reshoots and recuts of the
movie.
“I think that makes people feel like their voices are
being heard by some big movie production company,” Pottenger
said. “People always like to feel like they
matter.”
Fans pushed for more gore, nudity and violence, and also
vehemently fought to keep the title from changing.
Meanwhile, the film has mostly shunned traditional television
and print advertising.
Instead, “Snakes” followers can seek out information
and promote the movie using the Internet.
Online message boards and Web sites such as YouTube and Snakes
on a Blog have kept the buzz alive with news from the set and
fan-made trailers.
Connecting directly with fans is becoming more common in movie
promotion.
The characters Ricky Bobby from “Talladega Nights”
and John Tucker of “John Tucker Must Die” both have
MySpace.com profiles listing their likes, dislikes and ambitions.
MySpace users can “friend” these personalities just
like they would a real person.
“It’s no longer word-of-mouth, Pottenger said.
“It’s word-of-blog.”
But even as the movie studios discover the possibilities of
Internet marketing, it is still the fans who are making the biggest
commotion.
From writing theme songs to making unofficial trailers and
creating T-shirts, a grassroots movement has turned what could have
been a minor B-movie into the action event of the season.
Randy Chia, a fourth-year economics and accounting student,
bought a fan-designed navy blue “Snakes on a Plane”
T-shirt from an unofficial movie Web site.
To Chia, the nontraditional style of advertising also mirrors
the film’s nontraditional abandonment of high-budget
filmmaking.
“(In the trailer) there’s a CGI snake trying to bite
someone and it just looks completely fake,” Chia said.
“But that’s the charm of it. Fans sort of find that
endearing.”
For college students such as Chia, Pottenger and Calara,
“Snakes on a Plane” is just going to be a big, toothy
thrill ride, and to them that’s awesome.
“The movie doesn’t try to be something that
it’s not,” Calara said. “It’s very
straightforward about what it is, and people like that.”