Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
Short description
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events follows three siblings, Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire, whose wealthy parents die in a fire. A banker places the orphans with a distant relative, Count Olaf, who is in fact a scheming actor and master of disguise. He wants to get his hands on the inheritance the children cannot touch until Violet comes of age. The film is based on the early books of Lemony Snicket's series, with the narrator guiding the audience through the story.
Brad Silberling directed the film, the fourth of the eight features he has directed to date, following Casper, City of Angels and Moonlight Mile. Robert Gordon wrote the screenplay, and Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald and Jim Van Wyck produced. Emily Browning, Liam Aiken and Kara and Shelby Hoffman play the Baudelaire children, while Jim Carrey appears as Count Olaf and his various disguises. Jude Law plays the narrator, Lemony Snicket, and the credited cast runs to 39 names.
The film was released in December 2004 and had a budget of 140 million dollars, of which it earned 208 million at the worldwide box office. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.8 from around 231,000 votes, the same rating it has on TMDB from 5,397 votes, while a film critics' rating stands at 6.9 from 158 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- At one point, Tim Burton was considered to direct the film. With him on board, Johnny Depp would have played Count Olaf and Glenn Close would have played Aunt Josephine. However, Burton later left the project, and Depp followed suit. Brad Silberling took the director's chair and decided that Meryl Streep would be better suited for the role of Aunt Josephine. Streep agreed to play the part, but only when asked by her own daughter, a big fan of Daniel Handler's books, one of which served as the basis for this film.
- Violet tries to sign the marriage certificate with her left hand, but Count Olaf asks her to sign with her right hand. This is a reference to the literary source material of the script, where Violet signs the document with her left hand, causing the marriage to be annulled.
- Initially, Brad Silberling wanted the Sunny Baudelaire to be computer-generated (voiced by Shelby Hoffman in the film). Real infants were used to play the character, but at least in four scenes, a computer-generated baby was used, as it was for some reason impossible or too dangerous to film a real baby.
- Hayley Hudson was considered for the role of Violet.
- The design of the leeches was copied from illustrations in the book 'The Wide Window.'
- Avy Kaufman (who was in charge of casting) went to all the ballet classes in the area looking for a girl to invite to play Violet, but to no avail. While working out at the gym, she happened to see Emily Browning on television and decided that she was the one for the role.
- A toy – a cheerful little Elf from the beginning of the film – can be seen in Count Olaf's car.
- During the making of the film, Liam Aiken – who played Klaus – grew 4.5 inches, so he constantly had to have his costumes adjusted during filming. By the end of the film, he was noticeably taller than Emily Browning, who played his older sister Violet.
- According to the address on the envelope the children receive at the end of the film, the Baudelaire mansion was located at 23 Prospero Place, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
- Barry Sonnenfeld was originally slated to direct the film, but due to a number of reasons, he declined to work on the project.
- Filming was supposed to begin in December 2002 in Los Angeles and New York, but budget problems prevented this. To stay within the $100 million budget limit, the producers decided to move filming to North Carolina and Boston, which resulted in an additional savings of $9 million.
- Brad Silberling was determined to work in the dark gothic style of Tim Burton (and the original books) and for some time even considered making Burton a producer or at least a consultant.
- Count Olaf stages a play called 'The Marvelous Marriage,' written by a certain Al Funcoot – an anagram of Count Olaf’s name.
- The entire film was shot on soundstages – even the 'outdoor' scenes (which used blue screens and chroma key technology).
- The film is based on the first three novels by Lemony Snicket (real name Daniel Handler) from the 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' series (1999-2006).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
