The author behind the famous Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events books has lashed out at the Hollywood executives behind the film adaptation of his iconic tomes, calling them “absolute, gallant, grinning, devious lunatics.”
Two decades after the release of the film directed by Jim Carrey and Catherine O’Hara, writer Daniel Handler now accuses movie executives of chewing him up and spitting him out, denying him his fees and exposing his bitter behind-the-scenes stories. scenes of tension in the big screen success.
In his upcoming memoir, And Then? And then? What else? The author speaks for the first time about being fired and rehired, while accusing producers of cheating him out of his fees while Paramount Pictures worked so desperately to adapt best-selling books to the big screen.
The 2004 film, starring Carrey, O’Hara, Billy Connolly, Jennifer Coolidge and Meryl Streep, with Jude Law narrating as Lemony Snicket, grossed $211 million worldwide and even won an Oscar for Best Makeup.
But behind-the-scenes friction, especially Handler’s fury over the handling of the production, was largely kept under wraps — until now.
The man behind Lemony Snicket has criticized the Hollywood executives who adapted his books Series of Unfortunate Events (pictured, Jim Carrey as Count Olaf).
The 2004 film featured an all-star cast including (LR) Emily Browning, Meryl Streep, Carrey and Liam Aiken (pictured at the Los Angeles premiere in December 2004).
Author Daniel Handler (seen in 2014) described the film’s executives as “absolute lunatics, gallant, wide-smiling, and devious.”
The film is based on the first three novels in a 13-book series, which follow the misadventures of the orphaned Baudelaire children and their evil relative Count Olaf, played by Carrey.
“After writing nine drafts of a script… I was fired and filmed a script largely written by someone else,” Handler writes, explaining how he was replaced by screenwriter Robert Gordon in May 2003.
However, after filming, the filmmakers were still unhappy with some aspects of the film and called Handler to “tell them what was wrong.”
Handler was “on the last day of a grueling book tour” and ready to fly home to his wife, so he refused, but desperate executives offered him “a ton of money” to change his plans.
The sum was not insignificant, he says, describing it as “enough so that if you found it in cash in a briefcase at a train station, you would hand it over, otherwise the criminals would chase you.”
He called his wife, illustrator and author Lisa Brown, who told him he should go.
“So I got on a plane and then a car, and as the car approached my ugly destination, my film agent called me and told me that my financial offer had been reduced, while I was in the air, to the amount of zero dollars.
“I walked into the building anyway wondering what I was doing.”
The film grossed $211 million worldwide, but behind-the-scenes friction, especially author Handler’s fury over the handling of the production, was largely kept under wraps — until now.
“After writing nine drafts of a script… I was fired and they filmed a script largely written by someone else,” Handler writes in her new memoir.
It goes on to describe a “terrible afternoon” of arguments, interspersed with surreal scenes in which an executive, claiming to be cold, piled sofa cushions on top until only her head showed.
“As we continued arguing, she took the couch cushions, first the decorative ones and then the structural ones (the ones you lean on, the ones you sit on) and piled them on her lap and her limbs, to show off warmth,” Handler writes. .
“In the end, only his head was visible on the pile of cushions and the argument continued the entire time.”
Finally, someone told Handler that he had no idea what he was talking about, and the author agreed: “then as now, I had no idea how to edit or improve an already shot movie,” but asked why I’d flown away. all the way to sit in that room for nothing.
“The woman sighed on the couch,” Handler writes. “She looked like an igloo, or maybe a ziggurat, with her face on top, where she sacrifices herself to people in offensive adventure movies.
‘I understood then that I was among delusional lunatics. He had previously considered these people innocent, and then maybe foolish, and then maybe a pack of vicious demons. I also understood that they were, at least indirectly, the reason he owned a house.
Bill Corso and Valli O’Reilly won the Oscar for Best Makeup for their work on the film
The film follows the misadventures of the orphaned Baudelaire children and their evil relative Count Olaf.
“But now I saw that to argue with them, to talk to them, to spend time with them, was to spend time with absolute, gallant, wide-smiling, devious lunatics, and I was a lunatic too. It was my own lunatic story that they had filmed wrong, and I had entered this windowless room, of my own free will and without money, to hear the lunatics tell me I was wrong.’
As he emerged, the disembodied head on top of the cushions said, ‘Daniel, you have to trust our process.’
Handler is reported to have approved the changes made to her original script.
And then? And then? What other thing? by Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) is out May 21
“The Writers Guild of America offered me credit for the film’s script, but I didn’t accept it because I didn’t write it. I felt like it would be an insult to the guy who did it,” she said at the time.
However, there were hints of his dissatisfaction in the commentaries he provided for the DVD version of the film, in which he described the Lemony Snicket character as an imposter and implied that he had been kidnapped.
Barry Sonnenfeld, who was originally hired to direct the film, previously spoke about budget tensions, which led him to vacate the director’s chair.
“I was working with producer Scott Rudin, who had made the Addams Family movies with me, and Paramount decided they needed more money, so they brought in another studio, DreamWorks.” Sonnenfeld said in a 2017 interview.
“But the DreamWorks producer, who had made the Men in Black movies with me, and I didn’t get along. So when they got on board, Daniel and I were let go.
“I’ve been very involved with this for a long time. I had already hired a crew, all the sets were designed and it was very disappointing because I loved the books.
Sonnenfeld went on to direct the Netflix series based on the books, with Handler serving as executive producer. It starred Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf and ran for three seasons starting in 2017.
DailyMail.com has contacted Paramount Pictures for comment.
And then? And then? What other thing? by Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) published by Liveright, May 21
