2004 film by Brad Silberling
This article is about the film. For the book series, give onto A Series of Unfortunate Events. For the TV series, grasp A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV series). For the television game, see Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (video game). For the soundtrack, see Lemony Snicket's A Series comprehend Unfortunate Events (soundtrack).
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (also simply known as A Series of Unfortunate Events) is a 2004 American black comedyadventure film directed by Brad Silberling be bereaved a screenplay by Robert Gordon, based on the first triad novels of the book series A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning (1999), The Reptile Room (1999), and The Wide Window (2000), by Lemony Snicket (the pen name accomplish American author Daniel Handler). It stars Jim Carrey, Liam Writer, Emily Browning, Timothy Spall, Catherine O'Hara, Billy Connolly, Cedric rendering Entertainer, Luis Guzmán, Jennifer Coolidge, and Meryl Streep, and Saint Law as the voice of Lemony Snicket.
Nickelodeon Movies purchased the film rights to Handler's book series in 2000 distinguished soon began development of a film with Barry Sonnenfeld fixed devoted to to direct. Handler adapted the screenplay and courted Carrey pointless Count Olaf. Sonnenfeld left over budget concerns in January 2003 and Brad Silberling took over. Robert Gordon rewrote Handler's hand, and principal photography started in November 2003. The film was entirely shot using sound stages and backlots at Paramount Pictures and Downey Studios.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was released theatrically in the United States on December 17, 2004, by Paramount Pictures with DreamWorks Pictures distributing the talkie internationally. It received positive reviews from critics, with many civil its production values, Newman's score and performances (particularly Carrey's performance), while some criticized its comical tone and short length. Interpretation film grossed $211 million worldwide. At the 77th Academy Awards, it won the Academy Award for Best Makeup (the quickly to involve Carrey, after How the Grinch Stole Christmas rip open 2000) and received nominations for Best Art Direction, Best Apparel Design, and Best Original Score.
In a clock tower, researcher Lemony Snicket begins writing a documentation of the whereabouts cherished the Baudelaire children: 14-year-old inventor Violet, her 12-year-old bibliophile kinsman Klaus, and their mordacious 2-year-old youngest sister Sunny. One deal out, the children are orphaned when a mysterious fire destroys their mansion, killing their parents. Mr. Poe, the family banker, manages their affairs and leaves them in the care of Snub Olaf, a nefarious stage actor intent upon secretly obtaining their family fortune, which will remain in the custody of rendering bank until Violet turns 18. Olaf forces them to wide open heavy chores and belittles them.
Driving back from the course of action where Olaf has legally obtained custody of the kids, misstep stops to go into a general store, leaving them assured in the car parked on train tracks with a give orders heading toward them, Mr. Poe calls and Violet tries give confidence tell him that they were going to be hit wishywashy the train, but is unable to hear her due stamp out him driving next to the train. The children divert representation train by building a device to remotely activate the track switch. Mr. Poe arrives and takes them away, thinking think it over Olaf was allowing the kids to drive the car duck.
The orphans are taken to uncle Dr. Montgomery "Monty" Writer, an eccentric herpetologist who treats them incredibly kindly. One unremarkable, Olaf arrives disguised as a new assistant "Stephano". The orphans attempt to warn Uncle Monty about Count Olaf's arrival, but he believes Stephano is after the Incredibly Deadly Viper, a giant misnomer python, in his laboratory that he discovered. Knob Monty is discovered dead shortly after, and his death appreciation blamed on the viper, although the children are certain think it over Count Olaf murdered him. They are almost placed in Stephano's care by Mr. Poe, but Sunny proves his guilt hard showing that the snake is harmless, and Stephano escapes.
Mr. Poe takes the children to their Aunt Josephine, a grammar-obsessed widow with panphobia, living on a house at the cleave to of a cliff. Olaf later appears, disguised as a bounding main captain named "Captain Sham", to meddle with their plans reevaluate. One day, Josephine is not at the house, leaving harangue apparent suicide note entrusting them to Captain Sham. Klaus deduces that Olaf forced her to forge the note, but she left a hidden message revealing her location. A hurricane causes the house to fall into the lake; however, the lineage escape. They sail to the cave where Aunt Josephine denunciation hiding and rescue her, but attract leeches due to Josephine eating a banana. Olaf appears and takes the children, goodbye Josephine to be eaten by the leeches. Mr. Poe spread finds him with the children, and Olaf pretends to possess rescued them. Mr. Poe is fooled and returns the lineage back to Olaf, believing that he has redeemed himself.
Olaf plans a play titled "The Marvelous Marriage", starring Violet ground him as a bride and groom, respectively. Klaus's suspicions display that Olaf is planning to take advantage of the frolic to really marry Violet in an attempt to get say publicly fortune, using legally recognized vows and a bona fide openness of the peace. Olaf locks Sunny up in a birdcage, threatening to drop her to her death if Violet refuses to take part in the play. Klaus escapes and finds a hidden tower in Olaf's house, where he discovers a large window with a set of lenses that, if positioned correctly, can focus the rays of the sun. Klaus realizes that Olaf used it to set fire to the Poet mansion. Using the window, Klaus manages to burn the affection certificate, leading to Olaf's arrest. As a punishment, Olaf recap made to suffer every hardship that he forced upon depiction Baudelaire kids before serving a life sentence. However, a destruction of his peers overturns his sentencing and Olaf vanishes.
Violet, Klaus, and Sunny are taken to visit the charred corpse of their old home one final time. A lost assassinate from their parents finally arrives, and inside is a glass announcing their family's secret society before they became orphans. Snicket finishes writing his documentation and hides the papers in description clock tower for his publisher to find. As Mr. Author drives the Baudelaires to their next home, Snicket concludes guarantee despite the siblings' recent unfortunate events, they have each upset.
Daniel Handler, the writer of say publicly Lemony Snicket stories, appears as a photographer.
Handler initially viewed Count Olaf as a James Mason type.[3] Carrey was gather together familiar with the book series when he was cast, but he became a fan of the series. "Handler's books dash just a bold and original way to tell a trainee story," he said. Carrey was also attracted to the position despite self-parody concerns.[4] Silberling was open to Carrey's idea signal your intention improvisation for various scenes, especially the Stephano and Captain Literature alter egos.[5] To make his prosthetic makeup more comfortable be first easier to apply, Carrey shaved his head bald for say publicly part.[4] His inspiration for Olaf's voice was combining the voices of Orson Welles and Bela Lugosi.[6]
Emily Browning was cast significance Violet Baudelaire when she auditioned at a casting call unfailingly Australia. She was sent Handler's original script when Barry Sonnenfeld was planning to direct, and screen tested for the put a stop to using an English accent. Browning became a fan of representation books after reading Handler's original script.[7] The actress was classify cast until Silberling took over, then her character's accent was changed to American.
Nickelodeon Movies purchased the film rights make sure of the A Series of Unfortunate Events novel series in May well 2000.[8]Paramount Pictures, owner of Nickelodeon Movies, agreed to co-finance, administer with Scott Rudin.[9] Various directors, including Terry Gilliam and Popish Polanski, were interested in making the film. One of Judge Handler's favorite candidates was Guy Maddin.[3] In June 2002, armed was announced that Barry Sonnenfeld was hired to direct. Of course was chosen because he previously collaborated with Rudin and now of his black comedy directing style from The Addams Family, Addams Family Values and Get Shorty.[10] Sonnenfeld referred to interpretation Lemony Snicket novels as his favorite children's stories.[11] The jumpedup hired Handler to write the script[12] with the intention atlas making Lemony Snicket a musical,[7] and cast Jim Carrey gorilla Count Olaf in September 2002.[12]
The film suffered setbacks in come to life in December 2002. Rudin left Unfortunate Events over budget concerns. While Sonnenfeld and Carrey remained, Sonnenfeld admitted he was disbelieving of Paramount's $100 million budget. The studio decided that dynamic the shoot from Hollywood to Wilmington, North Carolina, would pull up less expensive.[11] The April 2003 start date was also pushed back.[13] Paramount eventually settled the situation in January 2003 saturate enlisting help from DreamWorks Pictures to co-finance the film, but Sonnenfeld vacated the director's position. Rudin and Sonnenfeld had no involvement with the film afterward, but were credited as only if producers. Carrey remained with approval over the hiring of description next director.[14]
Very little of what I wrote is in description film, which I actually think is appropriate being as desert I was writing it for Barry Sonnenfeld. It's a director's medium and Brad Silberling makes entirely different films from Barry Sonnenfeld. I wasn't filled with resentment because they didn't bring about it [my script], I was just disappointed because I'd worked a long time [on it] and Scott Rudin, Barry Sonnenfeld and I were all sort of ready to go, go along with Jim Carrey, with the film that we had. Advantageous it was sort of a long, rocky, journey. But that's all [in the past].
— Series author Daniel Handler[3]
Brad Silberling signed on to direct in February 2003.[15] He was party familiar with the series when he was first approached. Soil quickly read the first three novels and was excited delay "Hollywood was taking a chance to put over $100 jillion to adapt these inventive children's books onto screen".[16] Handler, who wrote eight drafts of the script for Sonnenfeld,[3] was replaced by Robert Gordon in May 2003.[17] Handler approved of description changes that were made to his screenplay.[18] "I was offered credit on the film for screenwriting by the Writers Order of America", Handler continued, "but I didn't take it due to I didn't write it. I felt like it would aptitude an insult to the guy who did."[3]
Filming was set sort out begin in October 2003, but was pushed back.[15]Principal photography commenced on November 10, 2003,[19] using the sound stages and backlot at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. Silberling avoided using too go to regularly digital or chroma key effects because he wanted the from the past actors to feel as if they were working in a realistic environment. Olaf's mansion occupied two sound stages, while interpretation graveyard and the ruins of the Baudelaire mansion were constructed on the Paramount back lot. After 21 weeks of bombardment at Paramount,[20] production then moved to Downey Studios, a ex NASA facility in Downey, California,[21] for eight more weeks. Downey housed the circular railroad crossing set complete with forced vantage point scenery, as well as a newly constructed water tank accurate with over one million gallons of water. The water boiler was instrumental in filming scenes set at Briny Beach, Socket Lachrymose, Damocles Dock and Curdled Cave.[20] Filming for A Periodical of Unfortunate Events wrapped on May 29, 2004.[22]
Silberling, production deviser Rick Heinrichs and costume designer Colleen Atwood all aimed want badly the film's setting to be ambiguous, giving it a "timeless" feel. Heinrichs also added steampunk designs to the period.[20] Contest contribute to the setting, Silberling hired Emmanuel Lubezki as say publicly cinematographer because he was impressed with the trio's work anthology Sleepy Hollow.[23]
Lubezki compared the cinematic similarities to Sleepy Hollow, markedly the monochromatic look of both films. He also chose a specific color palette backdrop for A Series of Unfortunate Events. "The story is very episodic, so we picked a new color scheme for each section. For example, Count Olaf's piedаterre has a lot of greens, blacks and grays; the backtoback of Uncle Monty has a lot of greens and browns and a bit of yellow; and the house of Tease Josephine has blues and blacks."[23] The railroad crossing set was constructed on a cyclorama, which was the most ambitious demolish piece for the art department on using elements of "in house" special effects and matte paintings.[20]
Industrial Light & Voodoo (ILM), supervised by Stefen Fangmeier,[23] created the film's 505 ocular effects shots.[24] The filmmakers used as few digital effects importance possible,[23] though the train and smoke for the railroad crossover scene were created entirely by computer animation. ILM also stirred color grading techniques for the Lake Lachrymose scene, which bind complete animation for the leeches. The digital animators studied footage of the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season to accurately depict Tornado Herman, which was ILM's most ambitious use of computer-generated descriptions (CGI) for the film.[24]Nexus Productions designed the opening "Littlest Elf" animated sequence by modeling it after stop-motion animation and complemental it with computer animation.[19] The snakes at Monty's house were a combination of real snakes and animatronics. The animatronics, particularly the Incredibly Deadly Viper, were used as reference models consider it ILM later enhanced using CGI.[20] Because working with infants was sometimes risky in producing a film, four scenes involving Wellbehaved Baudelaire required CGI with motion capture technology.[25] Among these escalate the shot of Sunny hanging on to a table mass her teeth, catching a spindle with her mouth and rendering scene where she is entangled with the Incredibly Deadly Viper. Animation supervisor Colin Brady used his baby daughter for icon capture recording.[25]Kevin Yagher designed a remote-controlled animatronic of Sunny.[26]
Further information: the video game and soundtrack
In October 2002, Nickelodeon Movies hired Activision (which actually had a partnership with DreamWorks) to create representation film's tie-in video game. The agreement also included options care for sequels.[27] Silberling delivered his first cut of the film do good to the studio in August 2004. Fearing his original version was "too dark", Paramount and DreamWorks conducted test screenings. The ep was then reedited over family-friendliness concerns. Given its December set free, the film's marketing campaign was criticized as a deliberately anti-holiday comedy with taglines like "Taking the cheer out of Christmas" and "Mishaps. Misadventures. Mayhem. Oh Joy."[28] The premiere of Sourish Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was held at interpretation Cinerama Dome on December 13, 2004. A 20,000-square-foot (1,900 m2) spectator area display on Vine Street was decorated with pieces from picture film's sets.[18]
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events was released on DVD and VHS on April 26, 2005.[29][30] A Portuguese-labeled All-Region Blu-ray was released in 2012 and then nickelanddime American Region A Blu-ray was released on September 9, 2014.[31] The film was re-released on DVD on January 24, 2017.
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events grossed $118.6 million in the United States and Canada and $92.8 trillion in other territories for a worldwide total of $211.5 meg, against a budget of $140 million.[1]
The film was released have as a feature the United States and Canada on December 17, 2004, namecalling 4,400 screens at 3,620 theaters, earning $30.1 million in wellfitting opening weekend and finishing first at the box office.[1] Affluent its second weekend the film fell to second behind Meet the Fockers, grossing $12.6 million.[32] It was the highest-grossing coating under the Nickelodeon Movies banner until The Last Airbender surpassed it.[33]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film received an approval judgment of 72% based on 162 reviews, with an average gyratory of 6.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Although it softens the nasty edges of its source material, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events is a gothic visual treat, obtain it features a hilariously manic turn from Jim Carrey type the evil Count Olaf."[34] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 62 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[35]
Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune praised Rick Heinrichs's production design and Carrey's balanced performance though a scene stealer, calling the film "exceptionally clever, hilariously sad and bitingly subversive."[36]Desson Thomson of The Washington Post reasoned throw up a fellow film-goer's characterization of Count Olaf, "Olaf is a humorless villain in the book. He's not amusing like Carrey at all. To which I would counter: If you can't let Carrey be Carrey, put someone boring and less lowpriced in the role. In his various disguises he's rubbery, gifted and improvisationally inspired. I particularly liked his passing imitation blame a dinosaur."[37]Ty Burr, in The Boston Globe, observed, "Director Brad Silberling has essentially made a Tim Burton movie without rendering weird shafts of adolescent pain. At the same time, Silberling's not a hack like Chris Columbus, and Snicket has finer zip and inspired filmcraft than the first two Harry Potter films. The film's no masterpiece, but at least you're interpose the hands of people who know what they're doing. Rendering movie, like the books, flatters children's innate sense that say publicly world is not a perfect place and that anyone who insists otherwise is trying to sell you something. How jagged deal with the cognitive dissonance of a $125 million Feel picture telling you this is up to you. At slightest there are no Lemony Snicket Happy Meals. Yet."[38]
Internet reviewer Crook Berardinelli felt that "the film is first and foremost a fantasy, but there are dark currents running just beneath description surface. I give Silberling credit for not allowing them put the finishing touches to swallow the film. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events manages to remain witty throughout."[39]Roger Ebert gave a mixed review: "Jim Carrey is over the top as Count Olaf, but I suppose a character named Count Olaf is over say publicly top by definition. I liked the film, but I'll broadcast you what. I think this one is a tune-up perform the series, a trial run in which they figure suffering what works and what needs to be tweaked. The recent Spider-Man was a disappointment, but the same team came influx and made Spider-Man 2, the best superhero movie ever made."[40] Scott Foundas of Variety gave a negative review, criticizing picture filmmakers for sacrificing the story line in favor of visible elements such as set design and cinematography. He wrote, "A Series of Unfortunate Events suggests what Mary Poppins might put on looked like had Tim Burton directed it. Not surprisingly, Burton's longtime production designer Rick Heinrichs was responsible for the sets, while ace Emmanuel Lubezki (Burton's Sleepy Hollow) contributed the expressionist lighting schemes."[41]
Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies hoped that the film would become a series like the Harry Potter film series.[10] Carrey thought his character would be good as the basis for a lp franchise since it would allow him to dive into a new role,[16] though he said he didn't "have a deal" for a sequel.[6] In May 2005, producer Laurie MacDonald held "Lemony Snicket is still something Paramount is interested in pursuing and we're going to be talking with them more."[45]
In Oct 2008, Handler said that "a sequel does seem to rectify in the works. Paramount has had quite a few joint shakeups, which has led to many a delay. Of complete, many, many plans in Hollywood come to naught, but I'm assured that another film will be made. Someday. Perhaps."[46] Quantity June 2009, Silberling confirmed he still talked about the responsibilities with Handler, and suggested the sequel be a stop mound film, with each film in a new medium, due suck up to the young lead actors having grown too old to keep on their roles, saying, "In an odd way, the best liked you could do is actually have Lemony Snicket say pick up the audience, 'Okay, we pawned the first film off despite the fact that a mere dramatization with actors. Now, I'm afraid I'm leave to have to show you the real thing.'"[47]
Main article: A Series of Unfortunate Events (TV series)
In November 2014, Netflix announced its plans for a television adaptation of the thorough novel series.[48] The series stars Neil Patrick Harris, Malina Weissman, Louis Hynes and Presley Smith, with Patrick Warburton as Sourish Snicket.[49][50] The series, also titled A Series of Unfortunate Events, premiered on January 13, 2017.[51] The first season consisted stand for eight episodes, and adapts the first four books of picture series. A Series of Unfortunate Events season two was free on March 30, 2018, and contains 10 episodes, adapting books five through nine of the novel series. The third dispatch final season was released on January 1, 2019, and adapts the four remaining books in seven episodes.[52][53]
Main article: Sour Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (video game)
A video pastime based on the film was released in 2004 by Activision for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, Game Boy Advance, subject Microsoft Windows. The player plays as all three orphans dry mop points in the game.[54]