As you may or may not remember, ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’ was previous made into a movie by Paramount back in 2004, where they took the first 3 books and tried to build a franchise off an initial film starring Jim Carrey in the Count Olaf role. Unfortunately, at the time the franchise did not do that well at the box-office, and with a big star like Jim Carrey attached it most likely did not make a lot of fiscal sense to keep the series going without the chance of significant box-office success in sequels.
However, it seems that Netflix still sees the potential in the series, and has picked it up for an 8 episode season,with Neil Patrick Harris in the lead role. We do not yet know how many of the books the first season will adapt, but I personally think that adapting books to television is a far better way to do them justice that a movie (books are so dense, why force all that narrative into a 2 hour plot?). With 8 episodes they can really flesh out the world and all the characters, and hopefully capture the magic of the books and draw audiences into the story in a way that the movie version struggled to do 12 years ago.
Netflix has just released the first trailer for the show, which does not show off much more than the reveal for NPH as Count Olaf, but it is enough to set the mood for the series, and reveal that while visually it may be similar to what we saw in theaters all those years ago, there might be some fun and some energy in this franchise yet. Check it out for yourself below and than share your thoughts on the new series in the comments below!
Full synopsis below:
Based on the internationally best-selling series of books by Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) and starring Emmy and Tony Award winner Neil Patrick Harris, A Series of Unfortunate Events recounts the tragic tale of the Baudelaire orphans — Violet, Klaus, and Sunny – whose evil guardian Count Olaf will stop at nothing to get his hands on their inheritance. The siblings must outsmart Olaf at every turn, foiling his many devious plans and disguises, in order to discover clues to their parents’ mysterious death. The eight-episode series is a Netflix original production, executive produced by Emmy Award winner Barry Sonnenfeld and Daniel Handler, and premieres January 13, 2017 only on Netflix.
Nick is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, who belongs to the privileged few who enjoyed the ending to ‘Lost.’ For more of Nick’s thoughts and articles, follow him on Twitter.
