Team behind Lemony Snicket’s Netflix series spurred on by Hollywood rejection
Daniel Handler, author of beloved children’s book on which TV series is based, and director Barry Sonnenfeld, both fired from movie version, determined to succeed with cast led by Neil Patrick Harris as wicked uncle Olaf
There are many reasons for making a television show. In the case of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, Barry Sonnenfeld is quite clear about his motivations.
“It was revenge, to be honest with you,” he says with a chuckle. Sonnenfeld and Daniel Handler, the author of the source novels, had originally been involved with the feature film version – released in 2004 and starring Jim Carrey. “We were both on the movie until we both got fired.”
With Brad Silberling replacing Sonnenfeld, the film wound up making US$209 million around the globe – good, but not enough for Hollywood to consider adapting any more of Handler’s 13-book series, the last of which was published in 2006 and has sold more than 65 million copies.
When Sonnenfeld heard that streaming giant Netflix was considering adapting Handler’s books, he campaigned to get the gig. “I worked very, very hard … and Daniel worked very hard to get me into Netflix. I very much wanted to do it.”
Certainly, it’s right in the wheelhouse of a director who neatly blends comedy and the macabre, as he did on The Addams Family movies and the Men in Black franchise.
