By Rob N. LeDonne

Looking through a shortlist of a few sure-fire hits this summer, a bunch of movies immediately come to mind: Superman Returns (a reinvention of the series), X-Men 3 (another installment in the mega-successful franchise), The DaVinci Code (based on the extremely popular book) and Snakes On A Plane (where snakes are loose on a plane). But wait, how could a film like Snakes On A Plane, a low budget, destined for the bargain bin horror movie, be considered a hit, so early on?

Thanks to a grassroots internet campaign, launched by fans that were apparently intrigued by the blunt title, Snakes On A Plane (or SoaP, as it’s increasingly referred to) has gained a following so extreme preceding its August release that its both baffled and delighted New Line, the studio releasing the project.

“It was hard getting actors to read it (at first), because they weren’t taking it seriously” SoaP director David Ellis, explains in a recent interview in Entertainment Weekly, concerning the hokey title. “So we changed the name just for casting (to Pacific Air Flight 121), and the internet picked up on that and got pissed off.”

So they changed it back. Ellis, whose only major credits include Final Destination 2, Homeward Bound II, and the flop Cellular, must be elated at all of this essentially free publicity, because a single advertisement hasn’t even been released.

This kind of reception for an unreleased film is unprecedented. In many ways, it represents the collision of two phenomena, the summer blockbuster and the Internet craze, which usually operate in two different worlds. Snakes doesn’t have the qualities of a blockbuster, but by courting the fancy of Internet dwellers with a taste for the absurd it’s likely to become one anyway.

This combination is even more interesting because it has the opportunity to be unique. Other films will likely try for the kind of press Snakes has attracted, but they’ll have the challenge of not only topping the film’s concept but also somehow appearing genuine in their attempt. This may be impossible; most of the reason why the film is so appealing is that its popularity seems to have happened by accident.

Searching for the title online coughs up 10,900,000 hits, which includes countless articles and websites dedicated to the phenomenon. Since shooting wrapped last September in Vancouver, Canada, they have since returned (in March) to amp up the violence and nudity. Initially, SoaP was PG-13, but with all of the attention, execs are figuring to give the audience more of what they want, and crank it up to an R rating, since they know an audience will come no matter what. This included filming more scenes centering on the film’s star, veteran actor Samuel L. Jackson battling with the snakes, which are terrorizing passengers.

In the end, time will tell, but a common frame of mind that New Line executives have is that that history usually repeats itself. Looking at the success of two similarly released movies: My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and The Blair Witch Project (small projects, which played strong due to a rampant word-of-mouth) SoaP is probably a film that will be talked about for years to come.

Jackson in ‘Snakes on a Plane.”