A few months back I emailed some friends (one of them a Samuel L Jackson fan with a subscription to Empire) a link to this ‘Blog post about an upcoming movie that practically defines “high concept“: Snakes On A Plane, a film that Samuel L Jackson will appear in because of, not despite, its title. Since then, Snakes On A Plane has become a full-on Internet phenomenon. By the time it comes out later this year it will almost certainly have acquired negative pre-publicity of Waterworld-like magnitude and cannot, therefore, fail to make back the costs incurred in making it.
Perhaps the greatest irony is that the guy who talked himself out of fixing the script might turn out, by writing about this experience, to be the cause of the success of the movie he walked away from—exactly unlike the way Pete Best made the Beatles global superstars. Josh Friedman has got to, at the very least, be given a VIP ticket to the premiere. Or perhaps he’s been in on the whole thing from the start.
4 words + 1 box-office name = ker-ching!
Thanks, Damian, this is great stuff. I loved Josh’s blog entry. As a rookie screenwriter, I am very envious of this title. My first screenplay is titled “Hurricane in Eternity” which is not bad and tells you what the action is, but it ain’t a logline and a concept as well. My logline is about 10 words too long, and I’m struggling to pare it down. Now I must rethink the whole notion of concept, title, logline, pitch. You reckon one extra word might do it?
[…] We like Snakes On A Plane. Thank you to Peter Briffa for drawing my attention to the Snakes On A Plane sequel pitch thread at the Internet Movie Database—samples: Jurassic Snake […]