Hasitha Fernando looks back at Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events as it celebrates its 20th anniversary…
A Series of Unfortunate Events is a series of popular novels penned by Daniel Handler under his pseudonym Lemony Snicket. Its big screen adaptation led by the inimitable Jim Carrey proved to be a solid take on Handler’s property by offering up compelling performances, colorful characters and a surreal visual experience like no other. As it celebrates its 20th anniversary we look back at what went on behind-the-scenes during the making of this movie and then some.
Production suffered multiple delays before getting back on track
Daniel Handler’s best selling series of novels A Series of Unfortunate Events were penned by him under the pseudonym Lemony Snicket from 1999 to 2006. The 13 books chronicled the misfortunes and misadventures of three orphan children following the tragic deaths of their parents in an unexpected accident. Recognizing the inherent potential of Handler’s series Nickelodeon Movies purchased the film rights to it in May 2000 with the idea of adapting the novels and making it into a lucrative franchise. However, the production suffered multiple delays and setbacks and most of it stemmed from budgetary disagreements and the lack of a proper director being attached to the project. In the end it took another three years before production commenced as the movie eyed a release data on December 2004 for its debut.
Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton and Roman Polanski were interested in making the movie
After Nickelodeon Movies bought the film rights to A Series of Unfortunate Events Paramount Pictures agreed to co-finance the effort along with controversial producer Scott Rudin. One of author Daniel Handler’s personal favorite candidates for the director’s gig was Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin. Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton and Roman Polanski expressed interest in the helming the project at one point or the other. In mid-2002 Men in Black helmer Barry Sonnenfeld was hired to direct the movie. Sonnenfeld was chosen primarily because of his previous collaborations with Rudin and for his knack of injecting dark humor into his efforts as evident from his past works The Addams Family, Addams Family Values and Get Shorty.
In addition to the above, Sonnenfeld was also familiar with the IP so he had a good handle on how best to adapt the books. The filmmaker initially hired Handler to craft a script with the intention of making Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events a musical and to cast Jim Carrey in the lead role of Count Olaf. However, production suffered setback after setback and due to budgetary concerns Rudin departed the project and Sonnenfeld too was dubious about the budgetary limitations. Desperate Paramount reached out to DreamWorks Pictures to co-finance the film but by this time Sonnenfeld had grown frustrated and vacated the director’s position. It was at this particularly problematic juncture that Carrey threw in the name of Brad Silberling as a potential candidate to helm the gig to the producers.
The director was unfamiliar with the property when first approached
Brad Silberling had already made a name for himself in the industry for helming such crowd pleasing affairs as Casper and City of Angels in the mid-to-late 90s when he was approached to direct Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Silberling was unfamiliar with the IP but he quickly familiarized himself by binge-reading the first three novels of the series and was excited that “Hollywood was taking a chance to put over $100 million to adapt these inventive children’s books onto screen”.
Handler, who penned eight drafts of the script when Sonnenfeld was attached to project was replaced by Galaxy Quest and Men in Black II scribe Robert Gordon. The screenplay by Gordon was based on the first three novels of the series – The Bad Beginning, The Reptile Room and The Wide Window – but Handler was more than happy with the final output and approved of the changes that were made to his original screenplay.
Jim Carrey terrified his co-stars as the devious Count Olaf
Jim Carrey is the master of improvisation and going off-script and Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events was no exception to this golden rule. At the very beginning when the orphaned trio and us the audience are introduced to the duplicitous Count Olaf played by Carrey, he pauses and says “Wait, let me do that one more time. Give me the line again, quickly, while its fresh in my mind.” This bit of dialogue was actually not in the script and this was Carrey improvising the scene whilst staying in character since his forgot his line. Silberman thankfully continued to keep the cameras rolling to capture the moment since he thought that what Carrey was doing totally worked in the context of the scene.
The transformation into Count Olaf too wasn’t an easy one for Carrey as he had to endure three hours in the make-up chair in order to become the character. The twins Kara and Shelby Hoffman who together played Sunny Baudelaire were genuinely terrified of the make-up worn by Carrey. Interestingly, Carrey wasn’t the first actor considered for Count Olaf; it was Johnny Depp. And when Depp turned down the role Jonah Hill, who was a relative unknown at the time, was in talks to play Count Olaf for a brief period before Carrey nabbed the role and made it his own.
Sunny was envisioned as a fully CGI character in the beginning
Industrial Light & Magic or ILM, the visual effects house responsible for their trendsetting work on efforts like Jurassic Park and Star Wars did over 500 visual effects shots for Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. That was because the entire movie was shot on sound stages, including the “exterior” scenes featured in the story. To realize the adorable, table chomping Sunny Baudelaire required some innovative thinking, however. At the outset, director Brad Silberling wanted to make Sunny a fully CGI character. But as shooting progressed Silberling decided to go with a more mixed method approach which incorporated real-life actors as well as some well placed CGI. Most of the scenes which utilized CGI extensively were sequences which too dangerous or impossible for a real child to do such as when Sunny is seen hanging on to a table by her teeth and when she catches a spindle with her mouth.
Tim Burton was a major influence on the aesthetics of the movie
As mentioned above Tim Burton was attached to the project at one point but some of his influence stuck with the production even after his departure. Burton is a filmmaker with a very specific sense of style and to bring his vision to life tends to collaborate with a group of like-minded individuals. So, on most of his projects we often see the same roster of usual suspects such as production designer Rick Heinrichs (Sleepy Hollow), costume designer Colleen Atwood (Alice in Wonderland) and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Birdman). Director Brad Silberling wanted to retain the dark gothic aesthetic that Burton brought in to the proceedings during pre-production and hired the trio of Heinrichs, Atwood and Lubezki since he was impressed with their award winning work on Sleepy Hollow.
Heinrichs and Atwood both wanted the film to possess a “timeless” feel by avoiding all things period-specific and keeping the setting ambiguous. In addition, Heinrichs also added steampunk elements to the production design. Lubezki worked to give the film a monochromatic look that was similar to what he did with Sleepy Hollow, “The story is very episodic, so we picked a different color scheme for each section. For example, Count Olaf’s house has a lot of greens, blacks and grays; the house of Uncle Monty has a lot of greens and browns and a bit of yellow; and the house of Aunt Josephine has blues and blacks.”
Emily Browning’s involvement with the film happened by accident
Emily Browning made her film debut with the Australian TV movie The Echo of Thunder and gained further popularity through her appearance in popular Aussie television shows such as High Flyers and Something in the Air. The 2002 supernatural horror Ghost Ship introduced Browning to a wider audience and memorable roles in movies like Sucker Punch and The Uninvited as well as the Starz TV series American Gods, further cemented her reputation as a talented actress. But Browning’s involvement with Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events happened quite by accident when casting director Avy Kaufman was working out at the gym and spotted Browning on television. After scouring a multitude of ballet schools looking for the right girl to play Violet Baudelaire, Kaufman finally found who she was looking for in the ever-alluring Emily Browning.
The costume department had a time with Liam Aiken’s growth spurt
Liam Aiken made a name for himself early on in his acting career with critically acclaimed efforts like Step Mom and Road to Perdition. The young actor’s immense popularity and inherent talent made him be a top contender to play the titular role of Harry Potter and ghost whisperer Cole Sear in The Sixth Sense. When Aiken was cast to play the genius child inventor Klaus Baudelaire in Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, the actor was going through a growth spurt of sorts which posed quite a problem to the crew in the costumes department. During the shoot Aiken grew four and a half inches (11.4 centimeters), which required constant adjustments to his costumes throughout production. By the conclusion of the shoot Aiken was visibly talker than Emily Browning who was portraying his older sibling.
Critical praise, awards wins & a cancelled film series
Made on a production budget of $140 million Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events went on to make a respectable $211.5 million at the worldwide box office. It remained the highest-grossing movie under the Nickelodeon Movies banner until Avatar: The Last Air Bender dethroned it in 2010. The effort was even a hit with film critics as evident from the 72% approval rating on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes based on 162 reviews. The site’s critical consensus describes the film in the following manner by saying, “Although it softens the nasty edges of its source material, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events is a gothic visual treat, and it features a hilariously manic turn from Jim Carrey as the evil Count Olaf.” Come awards season the film received four Academy Awards nominations and nabbed the golden nudie for Best Make Up by Valli O’Reilly and Bill Corso.
The success of the movie should have paved way for the birth of a lucrative franchise ala Harry Potter but alas corporate shakeups, behind-the-scene drama and innumerable delays derailed all prospects. However, a glimmer of hope was rekindled when Netflix announced its plan of adapting the entire series of books as a television series in November 2014. The series also titled A Series of Unfortunate Events premiered on January 13, 2017, to strong critical and audience acclaim and ran for a total of 3 seasons before concluding its successful run on the small screen. The TV show’s incarnation of Count Olaf was brought to life by Neil Patrick Harris. For what it’s worth Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events still remains a movie that offers up a good children’s fantasy adventure filled with scares and thrills, whilst tackling mature themes like grief, loss and childhood trauma. Certainly an effort worth looking up this Christmas season.
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Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.