Where the Projects Are

By RACHEL ABRAMOWITZ

"Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events: The Movie"

      It's not too often that authors get to appear in the film, but Lemony Snicket will be making his big-screen debut during the 2003 holiday season in the big-screen version of "A Series of Unfortunate Events," which will encompass primarily the first and third Snicket books: "The Bad Beginning" and "The Wide Window."

      Author Daniel Handler "wanted to have a role for Lemony Snicket in the script," Paramount's John Goldwyn says. "It was not a condition of the rights agreement, but it was one of the ways we were able to close the rights agreement. Everybody wanted the material."

      "The character of Lemony Snicket, he functions in the book as a sort of unreliable narrator that I think a lot of my readers have taken pleasure in, so it seems natural to put him in," explains Handler.

      Although Handler is known for the extravagance of his live readings, he doesn't actually plan to play Snicket himself. "No, no, no. Goodness, no. Who am I? Sly Stallone?" However, he does seem tickled by the narcissism inherent in the predicament.

      "It's sort of strange to start to look at old movies to figure out who should play your own alter ego. I think that's a game everybody plays in Hollywood--who would play you in the movie. It's strange to actually have some form of that conversation taking place."

      Handler is calling from New York, where the San Francisco resident has flown to meet director Barry Sonnenfeld and producer Scott Rudin. Their last projects together were the two "Addams Family" movies, whose macabre, ghoulish tone is reminiscent of the neo-Victorian, Edward Gorey-esque world of the Baudelaire orphans, "Lemony Snicket's" heroes.

      Unlike "Harry Potter's" J.K. Rowling, who has insisted on fealty to her creations, "I don't feel like it has to be a carbon copy of the book," Handler says. "I think all writers have some regret when a book is published and they always think there is something I wish I could have done differently. It's interesting to see if they work."