Barry Sonnenfeld Set To Direct ‘Lemony Snicket’ TV Series
I remember seeing Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events back in 2004 and being pleasantly surprised. It was the first kids movie that reminded me of the kids movies I had watched when I was a child. It had an edge to and a creepy undertone that I had never seen in a movie with an 8-16 year old demographic. It was something akin to a Tim Burton film but had a dry, quick sense of humor about it. With that said it’s pretty clear that, that movie stands out to me. So when I found out that director Barry Sonnenfeld the guy who brought us Men in Black, The Addams family, and unfortunately Wild Wild West, will be directing and producing Netflix’s new TV adaptation of Lemony Snicket’s Series of Unfortunate Events. He won’t be alone though True Blood showrunner Mark Hudis has decided to go a little tamer and has signed in to be run the show and executive produce along side Sonnenfeld. Granted Sonnenfeld really hasn’t had a cinematic hit since Men in Black 3, to be fair his main focus has been breaking into TV. He directed the infamous Beverly Hills Cop TV show pilot starring Brandon T. Jackson (what I wouldn’t do to see that shit). His most notable success in television came in 2007 with cult favorite Pushing Daisies which was cancelled by ABC but lives on in our hearts (I really liked that show myself). I’m happy about this because Seinfeld is great with darkness and humor the fact that he directed the Addams Family movies in a huge plus. That tone fits perfectly with the Lemony Snicket universe. No one issue I had with the movie was that it was a little too light hearted compared to the books, which were slightly more hard-core even for kids. There was a certain cruelty and cynicism about them that the movie ignored. Seeing how this will be on Netflix though, have no doubt they’ll kick things up a notch.