You may have already heard of Snakes on a Plane, a movie coming out today about one plane and more than one snake. It's prevalence in the blogosphere has been oft noted by mainstream media. But why? What has caused blogs everywhere to embrace it knowing literally no more than the title and the star?

From the very beginning, the movie has stood on title alone. Screenwriter Josh Friendman, who reviewed early drafts of the script describes it:

I will not give away any of the plot details of SNAKES ON A PLANE. But know this. As the great Sam Jackson would say: There are motherfucking snakes on the motherfucking plane. What else do you need to know?

Indeed. Mr. Jackson famously took the part based on the title and just as famously fought to keep it when movie executives sought to change it. A lot of times movies will have "working titles" that are later changed to something perceived as more box office friendly by the marketing plan. For instance, "Kicking & Screaming" was originally titled "Will Ferrell Soccer Movie". Currently tops at the box office is "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby". I'm absolutely positive that if you ask 10 people "Hey, what's that about?", 9 of them will respond: "Will Ferrell Nascar Movie". Why not just call it that? Why not call it what it is instead of running it through the PR machine on spin cycle until it comes out shiny? When "Snakes on a Plane" was about to become Pacific Air 121, people spoke up.

The fact that the democratic blogosphere (and, let's be honest, all of us) so values authenticity provoked it to rally behind this uncharacteristic showing of sincerity from those typically slimy Hollywood types. Fans began making their own posters, t-shirts, and complete trailers for the movie. The demanders started to assume the role of suppliers, to make the products that they wanted themselves (in fact no "official" posters, t-shirts, or trailers were released until fairly recently). It was somewhere around this point when the executives "got it" and not only kept the title, but went back to film a scene containing the line "motherfucking snakes on the motherfucking plane". If ever there were a movie that embraced the basic tenet of the Cluetrain Manifesto, it's this one. I am given hope by the idea that there is fast becoming an economic model that rewards candor over craftiness.

Early in the 1976 film Network, anchorman Howard Beale explains his inability to continue newscasting with, "I really don't know any other way to say it other than I just ran out of bullshit." He must have been speaking only for himself because, 30 years later, there's still plenty of bullshit to go around. I don't think that anyone is saying that "Snakes on a Plane" will be a good movie. It might be shit, but it won't be bullshit. The core of all the enthusiasm is that it is what it is, unapologetically. Mr. Jackson has said of the brilliant title, "You either want to see that, or you don't."

And I do, so I'm going tonight.