[pullquote]Netflix is risking its reputation and its success by associating itself with my dismaying and upsetting books
– Lemony Snicket[/pullquote]
It’s becoming quite apparent, and obvious, that the small screen doesn’t mean lower quality. Yes, movies still make a bunch of money for the studios, but TV/cable shows have become grade-A quality entertainment.
With shows based off books, the treatment of the source material has improved greatly. Usually more so than with movies these days, and probably due to the fact that the storyline doesn’t need to be squashed into 2 hours, but expanded and embellished into something much longer and far more respectable to the books.
It was 10 years ago that a movie was made based on Lemony Snicket‘s A Series of Unfortunate Events. It didn’t do too bad, but it apparently wasn’t enough to garner a sequel for the rest of the books. Turning into a series on Netflix seems more promising.
A Series of Unfortunate Events tells the tale of orphaned children Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire at the hands of the villainous Count Olaf, as they face trials and tribulations, misfortunes and an evil uncle in search of their fortune, all in their quest to uncover the secret of their parents’ death. More than 65 million copies have been sold in the series, which has been translated into 43 languages, and has spawned board games, card games, video games and albums.
The show will be produced by Paramount Television in association with Netflix, and Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) will executive produce. Here’s what he had to say about the idea:
“I can’t believe it,” Snicket said from an undisclosed location. “After years of providing top-quality entertainment on demand, Netflix is risking its reputation and its success by associating itself with my dismaying and upsetting books.”
(Source)