‘Damn, motherf***er, what do you mean you’ve misplaced your copy of Lucire?’

Copies of Lucire, the magazine I own, were in the movie Two for the Money, starring Al Pacino. Our next movie is coming out in August 2006 and I understand (thanks to a post on the meme by Tim Kitchin, which inspired me) that Pacific Air 121, which is what it was called when I signed the documents, will be called Snakes on a Plane (which is what star Samuel L. Jackson reckoned it would be called. And when it comes to a movie title, Samuel L. Jackson has way more clout than me).
   It’s a rare example of movie honesty. The old title was nondescript, but the plot of Snakes on a Plane is snakes on a plane. Long version: a terrorist unleashes a crate of snakes to eliminate a witness. The witness is on a plane.
   Or: ‘It’s a title. It’s a concept. It’s a poster and a logline and whatever else you need it to be. It’s perfect. Perfect. It’s the Everlasting Gobstopper of movie titles,’ according to blogger Tongodeon.
   Or it’s a brand that’s so frank, it’s a relief from all the over-hyped titles out there. Maybe this is what America needs in this era—an ironic dose of postmodernism.
   But what is odd is the term has gained a life of its own. ‘Snakes on a plane’ has inspired a cartoon, a blog (Snakes on a Blog), a T-shirt, and even one idea that it should be a term that rests somewhere between ‘C’est la vie,’ and ‘Shit happens.’
   It’s good old everyday folks doing this—Wikipedia cites a blog from screenwriter Josh Friedman—not Time Warner or New Line, and when the movie plot sounds as silly as this, I’m glad we have the public doing the marketing. I still haven’t seen Two for the Money, since it never got a national release in New Zealand, but if the snakes on a plane term is this much in the public consciousness, I might see this one without having to travel.
   It also shows that online media and word of mouth (even if virtual) work quite well—something that I had relied on to create my businesses in the first place. It’s been fascinating to see this happen to a term that did not (publicly) exist a year ago, and it’s been built up by bloggers and folks having fun—the citizen media have created this. It could be bigger than Tourist Guy (or the Tourist of Death) in 2001—Time Warner must be worried this is peaking a little too soon. The second mainstream media item has surfaced, at the Toronto Star, after a piece in Wired.
   Just remember, if you expect Sam and the gang to get rid of the snakes, the solution is to employ the copies of Lucire in the seat pockets on the plane and indulge in Whacking Day.

Del.icio.us tags: Snakes on a Plane | word of mouth | citizen media | blogging | vernacular | postmodernism Posted by Jack Yan, 05:53  permalink

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