119: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events with Patrick Cotnoir

Phil and Emily are joined by Hey, That's Me co-host and George Lucas Talk Show producer Patrick Cotnoir to kick off a brand new 2000s YA fantasy miniseries with Brad Silberling's Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004). Jim Carrey (as Count Olaf, in three different disguises) tries to get his hands on the fortune of three newly orphaned Baudelaires (Emily Browning, Liam Aiken, and a very bitey baby), while Meryl Streep and Billy Connolly play the guardians he keeps showing up to ruin. It opened against Ocean's Twelve and The Polar Express, and it never found the legs a Christmas movie needs.
The three dig into why the books worked for seven year olds, the Daniel Handler of it all, and the directors who almost made this movie (Barry Sonnenfeld, Tim Burton with Johnny Depp, and the wild-card names Terry Gilliam and Guy Maddin). They also get into the Netflix show, three books crammed into one script, Carrey's improv, and the stacked Sleepy Hollow crew behind the camera. There's a real case here for reading A Series of Unfortunate Events as a gorgeous set of dark ideas that needed a director who could find the dial for them. Gorgeous, overstuffed, and never quite scary same as the movie.

Follow the show & guest:
Podcast Like It's... - https://www.instagram.com/podcastlikeits
Phil Iscove - https://www.instagram.com/pmiscove
Emily St. James - https://www.instagram.com/emilystjams
Patrick Cotnoir - https://www.instagram.com/cotnoir