Samuel L. Jackson: "People want to see Snakes on a Plane"



(image via comcast)

As if Samuel L. Jackson needs to explain why New Line Cinema's "Snakes on a Plane" is the most anticipated movie on the internet right now. As if! He had us at "Hello," or, rather "Hisss..." Add poisonous snakes, and we're so there; we're so there. We just like seeing ... "mayhem."

We, frankly, count the days when we can set our svelte Ugandan-American tushy in a seat to watch the Drama unfold instead of talking about it. He speaks to Premiere Magazine:

"Premiere: ... Snakes on a Plane, for which you lobbied the producers to stick with the title rather than change it to Pacific Air Flight 121

"Sam Jackson: They had already changed the title when I got to Canada to start shooting. I let it go for a while. Then one day the producers were standing there, and I'm saying, 'so are you seriously going to leave (the) name on this?" And they're going, 'Yeah, we don't want to give too much away to the audience.' I'm like, 'Yeah, you do. That's the way you get them in there. Nobody wants to see Pacific Air Flight 121. People want to see Snakes on a Plane.' When I picked up the script and I saw the title, I didn't even read it and I said, 'I want to do it.' You know, before I opened the first page, Snakes on a Plane. If this is what I think it is, I want to be in this. I want to be on a plane full of poisonous snakes. And I want to see others on a plane full of poisonous snakes. You say Snakes on a Plane, people who don't like snakes are intrigued. The people who don't like to fly are intrigued. The people who don't like both are totally terrified now. People who like seeing mayhem are totally ready for that. They want to see, you know, people enclosed in a big tin tube getting attacked by poisonous snakes. Come on! What could be more exciting than that, you know?"

This shit is so fucking genius, The Corsair will keep his comments to minimum and just flow with it:

"Samuel L. Jackson: What do you do? What do you do until the plane lands? Come on, snakes on a plane, that's the title. And, you know, somebody heard that comment, people on the internet got behind it. That's right! (pounding the table, with gruff voice) We want snakes on a plane! So now, there's, I don't know, five, six websites, you know, that are dedicated ... there's T-shirts, there are bags, there are jackets ... Snakes on a Plane (pauses, looks wide-eyed) And by the way, you get some good snakes too."

Goddamn it. Best. Movie idea. Ever. More:

"Premiere: Why am I guessing you're not the airline steward in a tailored blue outfit?

"Sam Jackson: I'm an FBI agent transporting a witness from Hawaii to LA in a murder trial, this big gangster, and he puts a crate with leis on the plane and its full of snakes. And it time-releases halfway across, so we can't go back. We got to go forward. And the snakes got loose in the wires and everywhere. They're all over the place, about five hundred of them, all kinds. And all kinds of characters on the plane -- a rapper with his bodyguards, a Paris Hilton type girl with a dog ... there's the asshole passenger that everybody hates, the woman nursing the brand new baby ... all those kinds of stock characters that, you know, are victims.

"That's what I always told them, 'Look, you got to have great snakes and you've got to have great victims.' That's the formula for success for making a movie like this. If you've ever been to movies any time in your life, you know."

We know. We know.