There are, what, 14 of the Lemony Snicket Series of Unfortunate Events books.
Which of them is the upcoming movie supposed to tackle?
Thanks.
There are only 11 books in the series so far, out of 13 planned. The movie is supposed to be based on the first three.
The first three.
Could somebody pretty please spoil them? I’ve never been able to decypher the alliterative Dickensspeak the blurbs are written in.
Sure thing, don Jaime. The series is about the Baudelaire children, Violet, Klaus, and Sunny. In the first chapter of the first book, they learn from an unsympathetic and unhelpful adult that their parents have died tragically in a horrible housefire while the children were at the beach. After that, things generally go downhill for them. You really shouldn’t read them; they’re horribly depressing. If you really want to read something, you should find something nicer. Wouldn’t you rather read about ponies? Having a party? Everybody loves a pony party! 
If you absolutely insist on knowing more, but are wise enough to avoid reading the books, I suggest this thread.
If you follow that link, you should note that the OP changes his/her mind in post 21.
After hearing Tim Curry narrate an audiobook of one of the Lemony Snicket series, I fine myself incredulous that he wasn’t cast instead of Jim Carrey. I feel a little pissy about it, in fact. I haven’t read any of the books except the one on CD that I grabbed when every Audiobook on CD was checked out from the adult section of my local library. I looked in the kids’ section and voila. Curry did such a bang-up job.
Doomtrain and I started listening to one and had to turn it off, because Tim Curry did too good a job as Count Olaf. That hacking, wheezing cough was sickening. Otherwise it was great.
The books work great as books and I don’t see what good it will do to present the story in a different medium. Except to make a zillion dollars for the movie studios. I’ll admit that Jim Carrey can do serious roles (The Majestic, Eternal Sunshine…) but he’s treating this as another “Woo look at me, I’m Jim Carrey, I can do funny faces” role. And in a way, I suppose that works, but I think it should be more of a Professor Snape type. This one is already on my “Don’t need to spend $7.50 on THAT ticket” list.
I’m bumping this thread rather than start a new one… the reviews are out in my local paper today. The “real” reviewer agrees with you, Dude. Of course it’s not clear from the review that he’s read the books, but my fear is/was that Carrey’s camp will destroy the series. But the reviewers biggest complaint seems to be the plot:
But this review by a local twelve year old disagrees:
So it would seem that the film will be disappointing for adults, but still keep the kids happy. Looks like I’ll probably see it this weekend as a birthday treat for The Girl.
I just re-read the first two books and am reading (for the first time) the third book and I must say that I think Jim Carrey was born to play the role of Count Olaf. Olaf is manic, like Carrey. One minute he’s evil and the next he’s all grins in order to fool whatever clueless adult is with the kids.
I hope the movie isn’t horrible. It’s bad enough that the “Harry Potter” movies are mediocre.
From that article:
Yeah, but The Grinch was a short picture book, a book that only needed a 30-minute adaptation. The major problem with that movie was that they stretched a short book into 2 hours.
Ditto.
And as for the first three books being repetitive, well, they are. I was afraid that the whole series was going to be the same book over and over again, but they are getting better as they go. Sunny grows up and begins to walk and talk, more is discovered about an apparent conspiracy, etc.
With great trepidation, I’m going to see the movie next week.
May I just say that “A Series of Unfortunate Events” was filmed about 10 miles from where I live?
Near the Castle of Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?
I’m curious how or if they’re going to do the “vocabulary” portions of the books in the movie. I’ve only read the first two so I don’t know if it continued throughout the series, but in those there were constantly little “vocabulary is a word here used to describe the words a person uses when contructing a sentence” type references.
Jude Law is narrating the film, so I imagine they’ll build it into the narration. It does continue throughout the series of book, btw.
Disclaimer
I work for the studio that is distributing this film.
I have seen the movie and I am a fan of the books and I liked the film quite a bit.
I was very worried that it would be a Jim Carrey film and not focus on the kids, who are, in fact, the main characters. However this was not the case. They stayed very faithful to the spirit or tone of the books and the movie is a lot of fun. The sets and art direction are fantastic and don’t you dare miss the opening of the film.
Ebert gave it 2 1/2 stars. He liked it, but said it’s main problem was that it was the first film in a possible series and the film makers are seeing what works and what doesn’t.
The absence of Klaus’ glasses worries me.
My guess is that the film people did that to keep him from looking too much like Harry Potter. Although some nice rimless frames could have accomplished the same thing.