There is a summer horror flick coming out called Snakes on a Plane and that has got to rank as one of the worst titles for a movie ever. Mind you, I am saying nothing about the film, which I have not seen (and likely never will). It might be the greatest film ever made and I’ll never know it. But what the heck happened with the title?
I have a theory. The writer of the film could not think of a title, so he did as many writers do and scribbled any old title on the manuscript (sometimes called a “working title”). “Snakes on a Plane”, he typed. (It could be a woman, I suppose, who wrote it, in which case she would have typed said working title.) The writer then continued typing, writing the rest of what I am sure is a brilliant film, and decided that he or she could still not come up with a decent title. “Let the studio worry about it,” they said.
When the studio execs got their hands on the script, they saw gold. Snakes on a plane! What a brilliant idea. It’s just what the American public craves. Imagine the possibilities! The script was rushed along to the special effects team to see just how creative they could get. Somehow, in the excitement of such a gem amid sand, everyone forgot about the title. They just assumed that “Snakes on a Plane” had been approved.
Now, of course, it’s too late. The name is there in black and white. Snakes on a Plane. It sounds like a drink to me. If, for some strange reason, the movie should slither into box office oblivion, you can be sure it was the title that did it in.
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