"Snakes on a Plane!"

Special thanks to screenwriter Josh Friedman for this new expression of disgust. (For the explanation, click here).

Try it, you'll like it: "Snakes on a plane, I haven't posted anything on my blog for 6 days."

Or, to get on to today's topic:

"Snakes on a plane, V for Vendetta has been delayed until March 2006!"

You can read the details at Sci Fi Wire. The anonymous Warner Brothers spokesperson claims the delay is for the sake of postproduction, and is not a response to current events. I'd like to believe that, but...

At last month's Comic Con, V for Vendetta artist David Lloyd said, "Society has actually become a lot more like the one we claim here. I think it's important that we try to understand terrorists. It's gonna be healthy to understand what leads someone to terrorism."

Understanding? Sorry, but that's not the American way. If something is troubling, it is hidden away, out of sight, out of mind, so as not to risk disturbing anyone's delicate sensibilities. In other words, pushing the V for Vendetta movie back from its original premiere date of November 4 (which coincided nicely with Guy Fawkes Day, November 5) reminds me of the campaign to wipe out any evidence the World Trade Center ever existed after September 11, 2001 -- digitally removing it from movies and TV shows where necessary.

For details, you can check out Wikipedia's List of audiovisual entertainment affected by the September 11, 2001 attacks, which includes not only movies and television shows, but theme parks, music, and video games! I notice the list is incomplete, however, as it doesn't include the Playstation game "Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro," which originally included a battle atop the WTC, and was scheduled to be released September 18, 2001. Activision delayed it, and changed the look of the twin towers by connecting them with a rooftop bridge which, I must say, made the game a lot easier to beat, since Spider-Man could run from building to building, instead of having to swing or jump.

Speaking of Spider-Man and the WTC, I recently downloaded the original Spider-Man movie teaser trailer via BitTorrent so that my son could see it. It disappeared into oblivion (and every image of the WTC was removed from the movie itself) after 9/11. You'd think it would have turned up on the DVD as an easter egg, but no.

Describing V for Vendetta, producer Joel Silver said, "It's that horrible word: intellectual. I mean, you have to think about the movie." Obviously not an easy movie to market to the American public, which much prefers simplistic "solutions" to actual thought.

I can wait until March, as long as "postproduction" in this instance doesn't mean dumbing it down for the masses, or trying to make it fluffy and inoffensive.