David Dalessandro is a University of Pittsburgh administrator, currently serving as the associate vice chancellor of university development. Outside of his service to the Pitt community, Dalessandro is best known as the unlikely creator of Snakes on a Plane. Citing as inspiration an article he read about World War II pilots having trouble in the Pacific with snakes sneaking into cargo holds, he penned the original screenplay for the 2006 Samuel L. Jackson thriller in 1992 and developed the script for the following years. In 1995, Dalessandro pitched the script to 30 different movie studios and was rejected by all of them, until New Line Cinema accepted it in 2004.