Long before the summer thriller "Snakes on a Plane" slithers into theaters next month, potentially venomous fans started rattling.
The film's title says just about everything you need to know about the plot: On a transpacific flight, a Hawaiian mobster trying to eliminate a protected witness uncorks a carton of poisonous serpents. But as websites posted details during preproduction and as shooting got underway last summer, B-movie fans began to react. They wanted more creative snake attacks, more gore, more nudity and more of star Samuel L. Jackson's signature four-syllable obscenity.
How much of the chorus was sincere and how much of it was a desire to propel an already quirky plot over the top is unclear.
Nevertheless, based in part on the comments, director David R. Ellis went back and reshot scenes to make the attacks more violent, the sex more explicit and the language more profane -- including adding an expletive-laden line of dialogue for Jackson.
"I had the luxury to go back and tailor the film exactly like the fans demand and they expect," said Ellis, whose experience with "Snakes on a Plane" reflects the increasing influence that Internet fan communities have over what's playing on multiplex screens.
It's as if thousands of people worldwide are sitting in on daily rushes, in which the crew and studio executives offer advice and commentary on movies during production. Although most common with films based on superheroes such as Superman and fantasy worlds such as in "The Lord of the Rings" -- franchises with established rabid fan bases -- the Internet's reach is gradually turning the already collaborative process of moviemaking into a global endeavor.
Since 1999, when Artisan Entertainment built online buzz for "The Blair Witch Project," studios have embraced the Web to promote their films with campaigns that try to make potential moviegoers feel like they're part of a Hollywood crew. Fans in turn insert themselves into projects that catch their fancy.
Websites such as aintitcoolnews.com post casting news, director interviews and other project-related intelligence long before the studios' publicity departments traditionally roll out marketing campaigns. In the case of "Snakes on a Plane," screenwriter Josh Friedman ignited the spark a year before the film's release by rhapsodizing about the title on his blog. "It's a concept," he wrote. "It's a poster and a logline and whatever else you need it to be."
