Lemony Snickett�s children�s books are finally being made into movies. Should J.K. Rowling watch her back? An interview with the author

By Jeff Giles
NEWSWEEK WEB EXCLUSIVE

June 15 � It seems that Lemony Snickett�s wonderfully grim and nasty children�s books, �A Series of Unfortunate Events,� will soon become a wonderfully grim and nasty movie. This week brought news that director Barry Sonnenfeld (�The Addams Family,� �Men in Black�) will tackle the saga about the resourceful Baudelaire orphans and their never-ending attempt to escape the evil Count Olaf, who keeps appearing and reappearing in their lives, always wearing some new disguise and always intent on making off with their fortune. Lemony Snickett himself, whomever and wherever he may be, was unavailable for comment. But NEWSWEEK�s Jeff Giles spoke with one Daniel Handler, who refers to himself as Mr. Snickett�s "literary, legal and social representative."

NEWSWEEK: Nickelodeon and Paramount have owned the rights to your books for a couple of years. Were you just looking for the right director?
Daniel Handler:We were sort of looking for the right everything. It�s been a challenge to make sure that the series would arrive onscreen with all of the gloom and depression intact.

Your producer, Scott Rudin, did �Angela Ashes,� so obviously he knows unhappiness.
(Laughs) Mr. Rudin has a vast experience with miserable children from �The Addams Family� to �Angela�s Ashes.�

Are you hoping for a movie for each book? That�s a lot of movies.
Thirteen miserable movies! The first movie is encompassing the first three books, and everyone has high hopes for the movies, but our eye is on this one right now.

Have you talked about who would play the villian, Count Olaf?
I keep suggesting actors who are pretty much unavailable. I think Boris Karloff would be great, but he�s dead.

That�s a problem right away.
But that wouldn�t necessarily make him harder to get than, say, Tom Cruise.

Since Olaf keeps returning in various disguises, are you looking for someone who can look a million different ways, or is part of the fun that it�s so obvious that it�s Olaf?
Well, the book is from the Baudelaires� eyes, and the movie will have similar transparencies. Really, it�s more of a matter of looking for someone who can be wicked and ridiculous at the same time.

Apart from Boris Karloff, do you have any fantasies?
(laughs) Apart from Boris Karloff, do I have any fantasies?!

Answer that however you like.
I guess that I don�t have too many enormous fantasties. I just have fantasies that it will be a great movie, and I�m excited about Paramount and Nickelodeon being around and I�m excited about Scott Rudin being around, and I�m excited about Barry Sonnenfeld being around.

Have you spoken to Sonnenfeld yet?
I have. I�ve loved his movies since �Blood Simple.� [Sonnenfeld was the cinematographer on �Blood Simple.� The Coen Brothers produced and directed.] His movies have just a great look to them. And it�s certainly arguable that I married a short dark gloomy woman in order to get as close to Christina Ricci�s character in �The Addams Family� as I could. I think he�s going to do a splendid job. The first question he asked me was, �What do you think the cars should look like?� Which I thought was a great first question, as supposed to, you know, �Do we think we can get Blink 182 [for the soundtrack]?�

Do you think you were you helped by the �Potter� movies?
Harry Potter has revolutionized almost every aspect of children�s culture.

It sounds like you�ve thought of that answer before. What do you really think?
It�s true. From the moment that my books came out, three years ago now, there were already a lot more people in bookstores and a lot more parents and teachers made aware of different types of books. Another children�s author was telling me that it�s almost like playing rock �n roll in the sixties�it�s just a time when children�s literature is getting a lot of attention.

I know that you�re writing the screenplay. Was it your idea to that the movie cover the first three books?
We just kept tinkering with the idea. We hope that the films will capture the sort of old-fashioned �Perils of Pauline� feeling. I began to watch a whole lot of old melodramas with Lillian Gish tied in between the tracks.

Promise me that you�ll cast child actors who can actually act.
(laughs) That�s certainly my goal. Luckily I seem to be getting hundreds and hundreds of letters from children who are offering to audition so I don�t think it will be difficult.

It�s so rare to see a movie with great child actors.
Well, I believe my agent is talking about putting Haley Joel Osment in deep freeze and then taking him out.