Late last year, David Handler, the man who insists he is not Lemony Snicket, told reporters that filming for the Netflix adaptation of A Series Of Unfortunate Events was scheduled to begin in the Spring of this year. I was very skeptical of this and, in typical fashion, so was he, stating that "things go terribly wrong all the time so it's hard to know." Fortunately, the Unfortunate series seems to coming along right on schedule.
Why the skepticism? While it may be a part of Handler's commitment to the roll, he's spent many years denying he is Lemony Snicket at public affairs and trying to convince readers not to read his books, it also has some basis in past experience. As most know, the book series was first adapted into a movie in 2004. This adaptation went through a lot of setbacks and didn't perform as well as planned.
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As it turns out, the aptly named film suffered its own series of unfortunate events throughout the process. It all began in 2000 when Nickelodeon purchased the film rights. By mid-2002 the producers has chosen their first director, Barry Sonnenfield, who had a long history is this dark style of comedy and loved the books. David Handler was chosen to adapt the script, of which he allegedly rewrote eight times. They worked together with Scott Rudin, a producer who left in December of that year over concerns about the budget Paramount had given them to work with. The filming date was pushed back during this time and Sonnenfield left the project.
In early 2003 a new director who had never read the books, Brad Silberling, was hired and Handler was replaced by Robert Gordon later that year. Much of Handler's work on the script was thrown out and Gordon created the final work to be used in the film that would finally begin shooting in November of that same year. After the film was finished it was shown to test audience and re-edited because it was found to be too dark. It was planned for the movies to have a sequel, but that didn't happen.
For the Netflix series, Sonnenfield is back on the project as director. And, while the project's showrunner has left, everything still seems to be on track. Neil Patrick Harris, cast as the infamous Count Olaf even tweeted about the beginning of filming. Harris will be living in Vancouver over the next few months while filming. Meanwhile, Malina Weismann and Louis Hynes, cast to play the two eldest Baudelaires, haven't made any direct comment about the start of filming but it is clear that they have arrived in Vancouver as well. As far as the Netflix series "A Series of Unfortunate Events" goes, things are looking very fortunate.
