'Snakes' Director Cleared for Takeoff

For a guy about to unleash hundreds of killer snakes in several countries around the world, David R. Ellis sounds remarkably laid-back.

He calmly mentions the many events simultaneously swirling in his world: preproduction efforts on his movie "Asylum," which begins shooting next month in South Carolina; preparations for his daughter's wedding, just a few short days away; and -- oh, yeah -- promotion of a little, under-the-radar flick called "Snakes on a Plane."

"It's a good busy," he says with an easygoing sigh, as though he knows his current concept of "busy" is about to morph into mega-crazy hectic.

If the many months of online and media buzz are any indication, "Snakes on a Plane" -- perhaps the most aptly named movie in cinema history -- is about to strike it seriously rich at the box office. If that happens, "Snakes" director Ellis -- a 53-year-old whose three previous directing credits are "Cellular," "Final Destination 2" and "Homeward Bound II: Lost in San Francisco" -- could become one of the most in-demand horror helmers in Hollywood.

"I have no clue what's going to happen at the box office," Ellis confesses. "I just want people to enjoy it, whether that's 20 people or a million."

Since the Samuel L. Jackson shocker about (duh) a pack of ruthless reptiles taking over a commercial airliner was announced more than a year ago, online bloggers and blabbers have scrutinized, satirized and celebrated virtually everything about the movie. Web sites have been launched, song parodies have spread and all types of merchandise, from posters to "Snakes on a Plane" thongs, have sprung into the online marketplace. That's pretty rabid devotion for a film no one has even seen.

"You have to embrace it when you have the opportunity," Ellis says. "There won't be another film I do that ever gets this kind of buzz."

As much as he has enjoyed the experience, even Ellis -- a former stuntman who spent more than a decade working as a second-unit director on high-profile projects such as "The Perfect Storm" and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" -- admits to occasional turbulence on this "Plane" ride.

New Line Cinema offered Ellis the project after the original director, Hong Kong's Ronny Yu, backed out. "They go, 'It's called 'Snakes on a Plane,' " Ellis recalls. "And I went, 'Oooo-kay.' " That led to several phases of script polishing, including some from Ellis and his daughter and producing partner, Tawny (she's the bride-to-be), as well as reshoots earlier this year. The director says the changes -- amping up the gore, nudity and swearing to get an R rating, as well as incorporating a piece of Jackson dialogue ("I've had it with these [expletive] snakes on this [expletive] plane!") demanded by the Internet community -- were partly organic and partly influenced by the fans.

"This isn't some big political statement, so you might as well listen to the fans," Ellis explains. "If you can give them exactly what they want out of the movie, you should do it. . . . If there was some message I wanted to tell and the audience was going to compromise that, that would be one thing. But this is a full-blown popcorn movie."

The Hollywood veteran started in the industry at age 19 and spent many years performing a variety of dangerous stunts. "I did everything from lighting myself on fire to rolling cars to jumping 14 cars on a motorcycle," he says. Consequently, Ellis was hardly intimidated by working with a few snakes on film, which, by the way, are a mix of the real thing and computer-generated imagery. What does bother him, admittedly, is the common public perception that "Snakes on a Plane" is campy, in some way an ironic joke rather than a serious horror movie.

"It's a little annoying," he says. "At the same time, whatever gets them to the theater will be cool. I think I have done my job in making sure they're going to be entertained."