Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

Timing: 1:48 (108 min)

6.818/10
5253

7.265/10
165830

6.8/10
231000

All about film

Video 3

Photo 64

Actors and characters

Release date

2004-12-16

Country

Germany, United States

Production

Paramount, DreamWorks Pictures, Parkes/MacDonald Productions, Nickelodeon Movies, MacDonald/Parkes Productions, Kumar Mobiliengesellschaft mbH & Co. Projekt Nr. 2 KG

Genre

Adventure, Comedy, Family

Budget

$140 000 000

Revenue

$209 073 645

Website

Director

Brad Silberling

Actors

Emily Browning, Liam Aiken, Kara Hoffman, Shelby Hoffman, Jim Carrey, Meryl Streep, Jude Law, Timothy Spall, Billy Connolly, Luis Guzmán
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Walter F. Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, Jim Van Wyck, Scott Rudin, Barry Sonnenfeld, Julia Pistor, Albie Hecht

Operator

Emmanuel Lubezki

Composer

Thomas Newman

Artist

Bill Boes

Audition

Avy Kaufman

Editing

Michael Kahn, Jason McGatlin
All team (176)

• 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).
• 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.
• Barry Sonnenfeld was originally slated to direct the film, but due to a number of reasons, he declined to work on the project.
• 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.
• Count Olaf stages a play called 'The Marvelous Marriage,' written by a certain Al Funcoot – an anagram of Count Olaf’s name.
• The design of the leeches was copied from illustrations in the book 'The Wide Window.'
• A toy – a cheerful little Elf from the beginning of the film – can be seen in Count Olaf's car.
• Hayley Hudson was considered for the role of Violet.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• The entire film was shot on soundstages – even the 'outdoor' scenes (which used blue screens and chroma key technology).
• 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.
• 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.