James’s Daily Movie Trivia
The movie Snakes on a Plane was originally written to be about a man who survived the Stalinist purges in Soviet era Russia, now living in modern times under an assumed name. His daughter works three jobs to support them until an American reporter comes poking around, meets the father, and starts trying to interview him, forcing him to relive those terrible times. The journalist keeps pressing (while slowly falling in love with the daughter) until the father almost dies, and he’s forced to rethink his journalistic integrity and personal ambitions. Ultimately, he decides to leave behind his dreams of fame and fortune, becoming a lens maker in Omsk to help support his new wife and ailing father in law. The original title was “Until Your Father’s Funeral”.
Ultimately, after extensive rewrites demanded by Samuel L. Jackson and three other actors who were edited out of the movie, the plot and title were changed to something the studio thought was more marketable.
