Written by David D’Alessandro, John Heffernan, Sheldon Turner, directed by David R. Ellis and starring Samuel L. Jackson. The film finished filming principal photography in September of 2005 including five days of additional re-shooting to raise the MPAA film rating system rating from a PG-13 to an R[1]. It is now unofficially the biggest buzzed film of all time with tremors going back as early, as the Blair Witch Project era in 99. Buzzed is the right word and for once, it is not down to cast, crew or script,…and has anyone approaching the phenomenon quite taken aback by the way it all started. SOAP, as it is now known, started as a quirky little film on a plane, post 9/11. It was difficult for any respectable producer to think about green lighting a high-profile project involving planes flying.

Sam was brought into the picture – ‘because of the title’ – and all of sudden, the producers (Craig Berenson, Gary Levinsohn and Don Granger), realized that they were sitting on a good film. The film’s working title was then changed to ‘Pacific Air flight 121′

Perceptive fans – Hollywood insiders? Outsiders? – picked up on this change of name and started writing poems, songs, bloggs, trailers,…to ‘protect’ the title? Revive it? It started a cult followed by many and like the great men once said ‘Never was so much owed by so many to so few’
How and why it started will remain a webmystery. However, the title has now became in Internet-lingo an explanation for fatalistic feelings ranging from ‘c’est la vie’ to “shit happens.” …

Here is one of those poem by SuperMatricks:

Snake On A Plane or SOAP…

Internet aphorism…
Sentence precluded of any serious meaning
If only the very serious…meaning of life….
Over-reaching the foremost tentacles
Down the deep end of the wide web
Cruising like the riding zeitgeist.

For this is the Google age, we enter a new page
Clicking away at every turning point.
We are mere mortals and should not be on a plane
For this is the moment when running from the joint

The only ghost moved on the femme fatale
She, bless her, decided to refuse the rascal

Fixing up and looking sharp
Holding the mirror like a true lady
I unleashed my lyrics in a welcoming park
I have your snake down in my plane.
I never said it would be so easy
Her smile made you feel alive
Is it possible for a snake to be on two different planes?
Was my opening chat-up line…
I could never see the reality sign
Will Hoxton ever, ever, ever be cool again?
And my head never felt so much pain
I could never, never, see, she was a real dame

And she replies: Are you always so sneaky?
Maybe cheeky, never monkey!

She smirked….almost…
Am I in?
At any cost
Magic grin…I am the boss
Think…positive like a butterfly

She gazes…Make a move?
She oozes…should I fade

I start campaigning…for my own party:
Word flowing like a proper arty..

You are the candidate, of my heart…
I’ll fly your colors to the other end of the earth
…..
.
It’s alright I’ll stay on the plane, for the rest of the flight.
She replied
Tough cookie I thought…
Browne sausage she replied
D’you know a Chinese bookie? I uttered
‘My favorite dish’ she smiled

Like I said, the snake was not for turning…hmmm just maybe for fuming
First the snake then the plane…how did it get sooo lame?
She asked.
My cover was blown ‘pff’ confetti-style…
My pride? Down the sink… ‘Sssh’ Linguini style
I’ve been plucking chicken like you all my life.
I’ve been staring at you all the flight
‘Get your snake out of here!’
The plane was still full …of other Snakes…
END.
As published on the official fanblogg: http://www.snakesonablog.com/Soooo.

Green Light

You saw the movie…liked it? Enjoyed the theater or your home cinema…? Not yet! The only problem is you haven’t seen a single frame of the film so far. The problem is the film has started a bizarre internet fever never seen before in the Google age. The problem is chat rooms, news rooms, blogg, super-community website, fansites alike…are full of it. Full of stories about the filming, the press is at it, and the growing legions of fans as well…to the point where they’ve actually been able to reorder the shooting of a few scenes and the addition of dialogues of their choice to satisfy their browsing egos. To add to the insult, I will therefore write the first review of a movie I have never seen!

Before you asked yourself, is he mad? Remember that some even made a movie of how the audition was conducted, without being there! … So let me now do my mo#*#* fu#*#*#** review!

First let’s command the fine and subtle acting genius that is Samuel Lee Jackson the first, who in his inimitable fashion has been able to deliver a performance of the highest caliber for his legions of admiring fans. Second let us remember the premises of the film: There is a plane full of snake, Samuel Lee Jackson has to save the world, and will he do it? Sure he will, but before that he will have to deliver pin-point sharp one-liners, kick some a#*#* and stutter the sentence: Get the mo#*#*#* snakes out of my m#*#*# plane!
All in the name of poetry then….

What started as a movie made for popcorn lovers – The lead should have been younger; Think Fast and Furious – made in September 2005 in Canada, is now the biggest buzzed film of all time with tremors going back as early, as Blair Witch Project era in 99(post web 2.0 then) Sam was brought in and all of sudden, the producers (Craig Berenson, Gary Levinsohn and Don Granger), realized that they were sitting on a good film. The film’s working title was then changed to ‘Pacific Air flight 121′.

erceptive fans – Hollywood insiders? Outsiders? – picked up on this change of name and started writing poems, songs, bloggs, trailers,…to ‘protect’ the title? Revive it? It started a cult followed by many and like the great men once said ‘Never was so much owed by so many to so few’
How and why it started will remain a web-mystery. However, the title has now became in Internet-lingo an explanation speak for fatalistic sentiments that range from c’est la vie to “shit happens.”

Cut to the chase….
Sam is flying a key witness from Hawaii to LA on a plane. He is an FBI agent. Sam obviously enjoy playing law-enforcement character from Jedi knights, to SWAT team leader, to private eye, to simple cop,…His character is coming straight from the Die Hard book of widow and orphan rescuer, but where Nelville Flynn has the edge on John McLane it is in his ability to deliver badaaasss one-liners while remaining ultra-cool. A ‘tour-de-force’ done effortlessly thanks to the quiet and unassuming action-packed direction of David R. Ellis. D.R.E is known to be a surf enthusiast and was in a previous life stunt coordinator on ‘cult’ films like ‘Invasions of the body snatchers’ (1978) or action 2nd unit director on ‘Patriot games’ and ‘Clear and present danger’ (1994), both with Harrison Ford…

Have you said coincidence?
Woody Allen he ain’t. But that’s exactly the point, for he is well too aware of the danger of letting angst-ridden dialogues taking over the film’s subconscious message: ‘Kill all the muthaf#*#*#*#*# snakes’. A few additional characters complete the casting, sometimes as snakes-fodder like -Tyler (Kennan Thompson) and Ashley, a married couple; Cowboy Rick (David Koechner) from Texas; Cash Money, a gangsta rapper, his bodyguards Big Leroy (Keith Dallas) and Two-Ton; Mercedes, Rachel Blanchard as a Paris Hilton look-alike…some air hostesses, puppeteer (Adam Behr)…etc. And of course the snakes, stars of the films hissing their way through the cockpit with evocative names like Scarface or Hannibal with 20 foot long Kong stealing the show.
We leave you with a few lines dropped from the trailer and hope to hear from you soon:

Nelville Flynn: It’s my job to handle life and death situations on a daily basis. It’s what I do, and I’m very good at it. Now you can stand there and be the panicked, angry mob and blame him, me and the government for getting you into this, but if you want to survive tonight, you need to save your energy and start working together.
Or the most memorable one: I’ve had it with these mother fucking snakes on this mother fucking plane!

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Exils or Exiles tells the spirited, energetic and heartfelt story of Naima (Lubna Azabal) and her lover Zano (Romain Duris) on their journey to the land of their fathers, Algeria. Lost in the perils of immigration, these two children of the Diaspora defiantly take to the road with music as their only belonging, or as Zano puts it “music is my religion.”

Tony Gatlif, himself an immigrant to France in the 1960′s has explored the theme of Diaspora, of returning to his roots, “from my yearning to consider my very wounds. It has taken me 43 years to return to the land of my childhood,” explains Gatlif.

Shot in a simple documentary style, Exils explores displacement and the emotional place of Second Generation immigrants in France at a timely juncture, shot before the riots of October last year, it captures the anger and frustrations felt by this generation, epitomised in the displacement both Zano and Naima face. “I’m an alien wherever I go,” states Naima, having been asked “where are you from.” Her Arabic looks and name allow her a certain acceptance in Algeria, but also allows hostilely targeted at her western clothes and lack of hijaab (head scarf) and burkha (long coat). When she finally dons it, she is unhappy with her appearance, “I look like a witch,” she declares and hurries to take it off, whilst justifying it with the explanation, “I need some air.” Gatlif is careful to avoid a long discourse into the place of women in Islam and the West’s opposition to it, but succeeds in showing Naimas predicament as a young girl brought up in the West and feeling the suffocation of an alien culture that she has long ago rejected. The story unfolds of Zano and Naimas wounds being healed through their physical and emotional journey played alongside the musical journey. This reaches its climax when they are invited to heal their wounds by a Sufi Mystic, through music and dance Naima and Zano reach a trance-like state and are able to escape themselves and gain enough strength to overcome their fears and frustrations.

Gatlifs own life is mirrored in the story of Zanos father, having left Algeria at the turn of the ‘60s he arrived empty handed in France and became a street kid, experiencing delinquency and juvenile correction homes. According to his press notes Gatlif decided to meet with the actor Michel Simon, who he idolised. Simon, it is reported wrote a letter of recommendation for his agent. Next came the acting classes and five years later Gatlif secured a part on the TNP stage and wrote his first script based on his experiences at the correction home. After a series of films based around ‘drop-out’ characters, Gatlif directed Pleure Pas My Love and then Gaspard et Robinson, a buddy-movie social comedy dealing with un-employment. Latcho Drom (Safe Journey) took the audience through a vivid musical journey and is a true tribute to Gypsy music, charting the route gypsy music may have taken, through Rajasthan, Andalucia, Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Hungary and France.

Gadjo Dillo (Crazy Foreigner) followed a foreigner (again played by Romain Duris) arriving in a gypsy village in Romania looking for a missing singer who is the missing link to his dead father. Again the music plays a heavy component to this film, and like Exils, the music helps release him from his wounds. Gatlif wrote the original score for Exils and is no doubt as passionate about music as he is about film.

Whilst dealing with serious social issues Exils manages only to scratch the surfaces of them, yet remains a charming, surprising, hilarious and touching tale.

Exils is currently showing on general release.

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On England:
I am a big fan of Franck Lampard and to see him being lambasted around chat rooms is painful, but he knows that by his high standard he has performed below anything I have seen from him in the last two years. A big let down, sure. Yes, the English players were not only over-hyped, but failed to perform when it mattered and showed a certain lack of erm…bottle in key moments. The big money players have to deliver in the money time and they didn’t: Three miss-kicked penalties…On that evidence, it should tell you that something wasn’t together in the mental and psychological department. I have heard that France and Italy for example had blocked all intrusion from the press and family before reaching the second round, where they were allowed a day of rest and visit before going back into siege/bunker mood.
We now know who went to the finals.

The whole WAGS business/phenomenon was a real joke as well. Having your WAG making front page of the papers partying till dawn is not ideal preparation. A back to basics policy is required here. A real one that is! As for Mr Mc Laren, hopefully he will establish a more strict and austere regime, where players will think about football first and not about partying at Beckingham before the W-Cup. I hate to do that, because I really wished England would reach the semis. They did not and it is now soooo easy to throw bricks at them. But sometimes, they seem to present us with the right stick to beat them with …

Enough!

Team of the Tournament
I will agree with the proposed line-up and complaint about the Makelele omission. I would not put Viera in the first eleven, but the second. Makelele has played the whole tournament and has been a stalwart at the heart of France midfield. I can only be frightened at the sight of a defense made of Cannavaro and Thuram. Those two were truly the best performers at the final in my opinion.

Best 11
Buffon- Zambrotta, Cannavaro, Thuram, Lamm – C Ronaldo, Ballack, Makelele, Zidane- Henry, Klose
Materazzi
Just have a look at this authentic DIARY of a Dirty player:
No comment.

Zidane
Best player of the tournament? I don’t know…We will never know to be honest. Yes against Spain and Brazil he was walking on water. What is the legacy left by a man who suffered racial abuse on such a day and could not keep his cool? You may need to suffer racial abuse yourself to understand what went through his head. Some lip-readers helped us decipher what was said:
Z: “Ordinanza de tirare il costume!!”
(Stop pulling my shirt)

M: “Taciti, enculo, hai solamente cio che merite…”
(Shut-up wanker you only get what you deserve)

Z: “si e cio…”
(Yeah right…)

M: “meritate tutti ciò, voi gli enculato di musulmani, sporchi terroristici”
(That’s all you deserve, you muslim arse-holes! Bloody terrorists! )

Make up your own mind. Others publications are already handling the matter now. The war on terror was also present on the pitch somehow….
Going back to the football, ZZ was less efficient against Portugal who found a way to isolate him, however in the final he scored that incredible penalty a la ‘Panenka’ and in the second half of the final he was pulling the strings in midfield. Overall, the tournament has been poor in offensive bravado and his sight brought all the lovers of the ‘beautiful game’ together. Italy could have played Del Pierro…to give us a clash between two ‘fuoriclasse’ (exceptional players) but all Italy wanted was to reach the penalties…sad.

Footie & Politics
Well, we have seen everything. From the non-event: Iran was expected to have its president arrested or summoned to court. To the non-threat from Germans, Dutch, eastern Europeans and English hooligans: Fantastic!
To the amazing efficiency of German organization: Germany probably had one of the best organizations ever seen, although I was told that Japan’s in 2002 was excellent too. And positive results for the economy too from what I have gathered. A. Merkel ridding the ‘Klinsi’ horse and jumping on the feel-good bandwagon, linking herself as Chirac did in 98 in France to a successful World-Cup campaign: re-election beckon…Who’s to bet against her now?

The Italians are still master at the dark art of ‘combinazione’. (Corruption, bribery,…) You would have thought that after the pre-1982 World-Cup season which saw Paolo Rossi among others being suspended for a year, that they would have learnt their lesson. Obviously not. I was still glad to see their president in Englsih talk about the country’s pride in victory… They face another ordeal in their own courts now. Call me cynical, but I will be surprised if anyone’s of substance get indicted. They will be remembered though, for their amazing performance in the semis against Germany. Probably the game of the tournament with France vs Brasil…

Ach Zidaaaane….

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If I told you of an artist whose albums have outsold Elvis, The Beatles and all of the Jackson clan added together, I wonder how you might respond?

Well, the artist in question is A. R. Rahman, dubbed “the Mozart of Madras”, whose tunes have mesmerised music lovers the world over. Having first made his name with numerous hit Bollywood soundtracks, he has since composed the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Bombay Dreams. His next musical offering, the stage adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy, will open in Toronto later this year and, at a cool £10 million, it is the most expensive musical ever.

The good news for London though, is that, in July ’05, A.R. is embarking on his first live UK tour. Expect magical musical soundscapes, stunning visuals and, for the first time in concert history, experience it all in 3D. The publicity release explains it like this: “…the audience will receive 3D glasses to transport them into a magical galaxy, where they will be able to ‘virtually’ reach out to their favourite stars…” Apart from A.R., the concert will feature the very best classically trained, Bollywood playback singers, all of whom are popular artists in their own right. These include Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan and Sadhna Sargam, to name but a few.

However, life has not always been so kind and, A.R.’s own meteoric rise to fame is itself the stuff of “Bombay Dreams”. Born in Chennai, India, A.R.’s earliest memories are of long periods spent sitting by his father’s hospital bedside – something he assumed that all children did. Following his father’s untimely death, A.R., aged just nine, felt the mantle of responsibility for his family pass onto his young shoulders. Aged eleven, he left home to become a touring musician, working with many eminent names, including the table maestro, Zakir Hussein. In time, the young Rahman earned a scholarship at Oxford University’s Trinity College, where he studied Western Classical Music. On returning to India he set up his studio, Panchathan Record Inn (now one of India’s most technologically advanced recording studios, housing one of the biggest and most comprehensive sonic libraries).

His big break, however, came in the form of maverick film director, Mani Ratnam, who offered A.R., then 26, the role of Music Director on his 1992 film Roja. The gamble was worth it, as the Roja soundtrack revolutionised the sound of Indian film music and went on to win every music award imaginable, including Best Music Director for A.R. Rahman, at the National Film Awards.
Since Roja, A.R. has provided the scores for most of Bollywood’s biggest blockbusters, including the Oscar-nominated Lagaan. His skills are in demand the world over and in 2003 he provided the score for the Chinese martial arts film Warriors of Heaven and Earth.

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