As Jim wrote last week, few travel-themed films capture the spirit of travel as we see it here at World Hum. “Snakes on a Plane” likely will not be one of those movies. But if you haven’t heard about it yet, prepare yourself. You probably will not be able to avoid it for the next few months. “Snakes,” which stars Samuel L. Jackson as an FBI agent dealing with, um, snakes on a plane, has already become one of the oddest entertainment stories of the year, spawning, among other things, Web sites, song-writing contests, groan-inducing headlines (see above), dialogue suggestions ("Ever play Roulette? Always bet on Black Mamba"), an NPR segment and a page translating the title into various languages, including Esperanto ("Serpentoj en Aeroplano"). All this, and the movie doesn’t even open until Aug. 18.

What is it about “Snakes on a Plane” that has captured the imagination of so many? The Hollywood Reporter’s Borys Kit wrote a good overview last week.

It all started with the provocative and buzzworthy, if also reductive, title. New Line picked up the script in turnaround from Paramount Pictures in March 2003—in the wake of Sept. 11, terror-on-a-plane movies had fallen out of favor. And even within New Line, there were skeptics who viewed “Snakes on a Plane” as nothing but a simple program with a “stupid title.”

After Jackson came on board as the star, the title was upgraded to the more generic “Pacific Air Flight 121.” The studio said it was a temporary moniker being used for “casting purposes.” Executives were searching for something that was more thriller-like and less campy. According to sources, Jackson’s camp also was in favor of a title change.

“Who wants to be in a movie called ‘Snakes on a Plane’?” asked one talent agent at the time, seeming to echo the studio’s concerns.

But once production began, a funny thing happened. Movie fans began noticing the black sheep of the New Line slate. They seized upon the title and started spontaneously creating fan sites, blogs, T-shirts, poems, fiction and songs. The title itself, sometimes abbreviated as “SoaP,” has emerged as Internet-speak for fatalistic sentiments that range from c’est la vie to “shit happens.”

Entertainment Weekly debuted the movie’s logo in its pages last week with this bit of hyperbole: “Not since Betsy Ross unveiled the American flag has a design been so hotly anticipated.”

Of course. 

This is likely the first and last time you’ll read about “Snakes on a Plane” here on World Hum—unless, like Airplane!, it really does end up capturing the spirit of travel. In that case, expect a full review. If you just can’t get enough about the movie, keep your eye on EW’s “Snakes on a Plane” page, or follow the snarky commentary on Defamer, which rarely lets a week go without stirring up more buzz.