A Series of Unfortunate Casting Decisions
Tuesday, March 15, 2016 at 4:56PM 
Laurence here with some more casting news from the television world. When news broke in 2014 that Netflix would be adapting Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events books into a series, it was exciting. The 2004 film adaptation never really struck a chord, nor was it successful enough to turn into the Harry Potter-esque franchise Nickelodeon wanted it to be. It was received relatively well, but it has become something of a pop culture footnote.
Television is a pretty natural place for an adaptation of a 13-book series, however, and Netflix's love of hurling absurd amounts of money at every algorithmically pleasing premise bade well for a new adaptation.
After a long time spent in 'talks', yesterday it was finally confirmed that the actor cast to play Count Olaf in the series is...Neil Patrick Harris? Now, NPH has been doing solid work in proving his range post-HIMYM. He was enjoyably creepy in Gone Girl, and his stint in Hedwig on Broadway showed he could be, well, Hedwig. But whatever you think about Jim Carrey's performance as Olaf, he was nothing if not indelible.
But NPH as Count Olaf seems, well, a stretch. There's no denying that he has comic chops. But Olaf is an evil, strange, reptilian character, such that casting NPH makes the whole thing feel sanitised and kid-friendly. Add in the fact that their casting of Violet (Malina Weissman) and Klaus (Louis Hynes) seems to be both skewing younger than the film and strangely insistent on replicating the look of the film's stars, Emily Browning and Liam Aiken.
One bright spot, at least, is the casting of Patrick Warburton as Lemony Snicket, who was played by Jude Law in the film. But despite NPH's Halloween costume bona fides, Netflix could have been more creative. Imagine Kathy Najimy as a genderbent Countess Olaf. Imagine.
Perhaps the most curious aspect is that the series is set to be directed, at least at first, by Barry Sonnenfeld of Addams Family Values fame, who was originally set to direct the film. At the time, he hired Daniel Handler (the writer behind the Snicket pen name) to adapt the books as a musical. Given that they have also cast two-time Tony nominee K. Todd Freeman, it will be interesting to find out if that's what we're going to get. But is that what the books deserve?
Reader Comments (13)
Although I loved the books at first, I became annoyed when Daniel Handler kept adding more questions and mysteries that he never had any intention of answering (and never did). It soured the entire series for me. He could very easily have left out anything he wasn't going to explain, but evidently he's not that good of an author.
So when I found out Neil Patrick Harris was playing the lead, it didn't phase me. I may watch the series to see if they do what the author wasn't talented enough to do, but I probably won't. I agree with you; Jim Carrey made that role his own. And while I have a world of respect for NPH - I think he's one of the most talented people alive - I just don't think he's a great fit.
NPH is such a blah choice.
and who will be playing the Meryl Streep role?!
Don't kids love the Jim Carey film adaption? It seems to still be watched a lot on video or streaming, or maybe that is in my imagination. About this new casting, I have to agree. Neil Patrick Harris is not an inspired casting choice. He is neither funny nor very creative.
Totally disagree here - I think the Carrey of it all is part of what sank the first adaptation. And NPH seems "sanitised and kid-friendly"? Carrey is the one with the extensive record of family entertainment.
I like NPH but people think he is more talented than he actually is. Jim Carrey has the opposite problem. I guess we will see though.
Apologies, but I'm not really sure the stakes are so high for another Lemony Snicket project in the first place. If it's a fun role for NPH, why not? Your hopes for this second-rate kids' lit REMAKE seem a bit too steep.
@Hayden W.: Stakes are in the eye of the beholder. I really enjoyed the (very successful) books when I was younger and I genuinely think they could make something great in adaptation if done properly. IMO it's a fun role, but I also don't think NPH is much fun (he's a comedic butterscotch). And there's nothing inherently wrong with remakes if they can bring a new dimension to source material, as TV can (see also: the upcoming TV adaptation of the His Dark Materials series).
Hayden W.: Agreed. When I was a kid, I kind of broke it down like this:
#1. Artemis Fowl. (I absolutely understand why it has taken so long for a film adaptation of this to possibly come to fruition (It's difficult to sell for some of the same reasons that, say, a live-action Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy adaptation (though, I admit I'd love to see what someone trying to be Burton-esque could do with a live-action version of Billy and Mandy) would be difficult to sell), but I'm very happy that it might FINALLY be going forward.)
#2. Harry Potter. (A very good grasp of character, even if they were eventually overlong and slightly artless prose-wise.)
#3. A Series of Unfortunate Events. (It had that very good hook, that was admittedly half marketing, but it had it's moments of actual inspiration.)
And then everything else in the Kid's fantasy boom of the late-90s to early 2000s.
I personally hated Jim Carey as Count Olaf and hated the way they crammed 2 or 3 of the books into 1 movie. I can't remember how much book material was covered exactly I tried to block out the memory of the movie. ASOUE was one of my favorite books as a young adult and I really care about it being adapted well. I am going to reserve judgement on whether NPH can pull off Olaf until I see it. I do think the child actors they selected seem a bit young for the characters but it's something different than a 20 something actor playing a preteen at least.
This book series was one of my favorites as a child, and I was really looking forward to the Netflix adaptation. Neil Patrick Harris's casting ensures that I will not watch a single episode. He's always so smug. The media and general public have lied to him over the years and convinced him that he's fly, talented, funny, sexy, and versatile and he's not. He is nothing of the sort.
Agree w/ James. NPH can do a Broadway routine but several episodes of a NetFlix kid's show? Good luck Scooby Doo. I did not read the LS books but I liked the Jim Carrey film. The kids were great in it, and Jim did a good job.
Ok, I keep reading a lot of people saying he can't do several episodes of a show. Are we talking about the same NPH who played Doogie Howser for four years? Or the same NPH who was on 9 seasons of How I Met Your Mother (and was a lot of people's favorite aspect of that show during its peak)? If you don't see him as Count Olaf, that's another story, but he can definitely handle a television show. I'm actually curious to see what NPH will bring to this role, which has a certain innate theatricality that seems a perfect fit for NPH (which Jim Carrey married with a certain creepiness that fit the character quite well) and while I wasn't as sold on NPH's turn in Gone Girl (which is where he tried something more mencaing), I'd like to see where he goes with this.
Richter: Exactly. He's not a great actor, but he's not an awful choice for this.