- Related Stories
-
'My Name Is Earl' promotion launched on MySpace
August 11, 2006 -
Bringing movie magic to Net marketing
July 25, 2005 -
Blair Witch producer signs with Web start-up
January 20, 2000
(continued from previous page)
Some of the eager patrons at the Empire Theater on opening night counted themselves among the creative Web users who helped turn "SoaP" into one of the most anticipated films of the summer.
Among them were Chris Buccella, owner of Damnation-inc.com, which manufactured a variety of "Snakes on a Plane"-theme T-shirts; and Alexander Kieft, a recent Swarthmore College graduate who created a popular parody video called "Snakes on an Elevator."
Both Buccella and Kieft were grinning ear to ear at the prospect of finally being able to see "Snakes on a Plane." As Finkelstein had said, "It's one of those things where people are, for whatever reason, genuinely excited by this movie and genuinely attracted to it."
Just call it Cinema 2.0.
For word-of-mouth phenomena, the rapid ascent of the "SoaP" prerelease spectacle and its remarkable promotional power are unusual, if not unprecedented, even though the utility of the Net was behind it. They have frequently been compared to the chatter generated by "The Blair Witch Project," that low-budget 1999 horror movie that gained loads of prerelease buzz because its production company marketed it over the Internet as actual footage from a documentary gone awry.
"The Internet had a big part in making 'Blair Witch' the hit that it became," observed Paul Degarabedian, an analyst at Exhibitor Relations. With an arsenal of fake Web sites that detailed a fictional backstory, "they created a mystique surrounding the movie."
Video: 'Snakes' slither into N.Y.
CNET News.com's Caroline McCarthy reports from the debut of the movie "Snakes on a Plane."
But "SoaP" purists are eager to point out differences between the two movies. "The viral ads for 'Blair Witch' were calculated and manufactured (by the marketing team)," Finkelstein said. "I don't think there was anything that was fan-created or fan-driven."
Gitesh Pandya, editor of Box Office Guru, agrees: "It's been different for 'Snakes' because fans have felt empowered knowing that their feedback helped to change the final cut of the film." Besides, he added, the two movies don't have much in common when it comes to concept, budget or casting.
"For 'Blair Witch,' the Internet buzz was more about spreading the word about a low-budget film with no stars." "SoaP," meanwhile, is a summer action movie with a big-name star (Jackson) that needed to stand out in a season full of even bigger names, including "Superman Returns," "X-Men 3" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," to name a few.
But once "SoaP" fever began to spread, New Line was eager to keep things hot. Imitating the interactive-content-driven publicity blitz that fans had started, the studio's marketing team collaborated with social-networking site TagWorld on a "Snakes on a Plane"-inspired song contest. (An electropop act called Captain Ahab emerged the winner.)
"SoaP" enthusiasts were encouraged to spread the word to their friends through semipersonalized telephone calls from Jackson. Most important, not only did New Line step up the marketing, but it made changes to the movie based on fan feedback.
As recounted on hundreds of news outlets, blogs and fan sites, director David Ellis rounded up the cast for five days of reshoots, responding to the fans' reactions and upping the film's gore and obscenity to bump its viewer advisory rating from PG-13 to R. And now, as screenwriter Friedman imagined a year ago, the final cut of "Snakes on a Plane" really does include Jackson's character saying, with gritty action movie determination, "I've had it with these (expletive) snakes on this (expletive) plane!"
Since "SoaP" had no advance screenings for critics, it's still too early to tell whether movie audiences will truly embrace it. But the small amount of buzz overheard after Thursday night's debut has been--hold your breath--good. If it's a hit, as so many bloggers have hoped, we could see more fan-inspired elements in movies in the future, not only to create advance buzz but also to prevent flops.
That will depend, of course, on the studios' willingness to play along. Michael Coristine, an analyst at marketing firm Brandimensions, uses the example of "Poseidon," a movie that actually was supposed to be a summer blockbuster this year but fell embarrassingly short of expectations. Coristine attributed its failure to "casting missteps." Had its creators followed blog banter like the "SoaP" team did, he theorized, "they would have been able to better gauge the shrunken fan base for lead actor Kurt Russell."
Putting Jackson on a plane full of snakes, on the other hand, added big bite to the "SoaP" buzz. As one young patron in front of the Empire Theater raved, "He's perfect for it. He's just one total bad (expletive)."
See more CNET content tagged:
movie, blog
What a concept!
How clever!
****!!!
Dear Mr Samuel Jackson,
Did you ask your agent for this gig? Are you that desperate for a film or were you tricked into it with a bogus script? Come on. Just turn down the temperature on the aircraft. After 20 minutes, the snakes will be in hibernation from the cold. Done.
So what if you need a jacket. You a badass MF!
Hollywood is so desperate for movies that it spends more hyping them (social networking via MySpace? YouTube?) and pursuing dead pirates (MPAA vs dead grand parent) then actually hiring talented writers.
I'd only watch this, if it were free. No wait, I want free popcorn and a date with me too. Someone that won't comment or talk during the movie. Can you dig it?
"horror" movies even less - I recognize that SoaP arises from a
long genre of "impossible movies" involving things that tend to
repulse and disgust us. The movies "Arachnophobia" (the shot of
the spider crawling out of the mortician's nose has to be the
classic gross out scene in a non-slasher movie in the history of
film) and Tremors - my all time favorite cult film - come right to
mind.
There is no way that anyone can take this film seriously. Just like
no one could take Arachnophobia or Tremors seriously. I do
admit, it looks like SoaP is less of a "thrillomedy" than
Arachnophobia and involves a whole lot more real nasties than
Tremors, (as well as lacking Reba McIntyre in a staring role), But,
really, could anyone even think the premise of this movie is
plausible?
Then, again, if someone from the DHS or the TSA sees this
movie, we could be prohibited from carrying rubber snakes
onboard airlines for a long time... LOL
of a movie next to an advertisment touting that same movie?
Much like any other fantasy film, it puts abstract ideas in unrealistic settings. However, this 'comedy' goes one step further by playing itself off as an action movie.
This film did/does what it should: Prove that movies aren't just an art form, they're entertainment too.
- Saw it...
- by zaznet August 20, 2006 2:43 AM PDT
- I went and saw this on opening night. Well worth the ticket price, just a bunch of fun to be had. Even some people who really didn't like the movie said they had fun going to see it.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
(10 Comments)