Netflix to Make TV Show Based on Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Posted on November 7, 2014

Good news for Lemony Snicket fans: Netflix is making A Series of Unfortunate Events into a live action television series. Netflix picked up the rights from Paramount which made the feature film version with Jim Carrey. The cover of the first book in the series, The Bad Beginning, is pictured above.

Deadline reports that Netflix has been looking to grab a piece of the family entertainment sector after hitting home runs with such adult-oriented fare as Orange is the New Black and House of Cards. Netflix recently picked up the live action comedy Richie Rich from Awesomeness TV.

Paramount television is co-producing the series which does not yet have a director or a proposed air date. For those that have somehow escaped hearing about the terrifying adventures of the Baudelaire orphans Violet, Klaus and Sunny, you are in for a treat. The books are narrated by Lemony Snicket, the author of the series. The series follows the trials and tribulations of the orphans as they attempt to evade the villainous Count Olaf and find the fortune left to them by their late parents. Jim Carrey played Count Olaf in the original film and Jude Law played Lemony Snicket.

Snicket issued a statement "from an undisclosed location." He said, "I can't believe it. After years of providing top-quality entertainment on demand, Netflix is risking its reputation and its success by associating itself with my dismaying and upsetting books." Netflix issued a statement noting that given Mr. Snicket's emotional distress over the subject matter that his "participation will be limited." Netflix did offer a ray of hope noting that "the project has the full involvement of his legal, literary and social representative Daniel Handler, who is often mistaken for him."

Of course, Lemony Snicket is the extremely paranoid alter ego of bestselling childrens and adult author Daniel Handler, author of Shouldn't You Be In School? and the upcoming novel We Are Pirates. Handler is hosting the National Book Awards in New York City on November 19th. As Lemony Snicket he wrote all 13 of the books in A Series of Unfortunate Events which has sold 65 million copies world wide.

This is enough to get us to subscribe to Netflix. We love Lemony Snicket and Daniel Handler. We can't wait to see who the director is.