Trivia / A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

• Acting for Two: The trailer advertises the movie as starring "Jim Carrey, Jim Carrey, and...Jim Carrey". All characters shown are just the same character in different disguises.
• Actor-Shared Background: Coincidental, but Liam Aiken's (Klaus's actor) house burned down during the premiere of the film.
• The Cast Showoff: Parodied in the trailers for the film, where Jim Carrey is credited three times in less than three seconds for each of Olaf's disguises.
• Dawson Casting: Averted—Emily Browning and Liam Aiken were both only a year or so older than their characters in the film.
• Disowned Adaptation: Both Executive Producer Barry Sonnenfeld and Daniel Handler himself aren't fond of this movie. What probably doesn't help is that neither of them had much creative control over it.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Jim Carrey shaved his head to make it easier to apply the facial prosthetics he needed to portray Count Olaf.
• DVD Commentary: Two, one that comes in the regular "actors and director" flavor and one that features the director and Daniel Handler in character as Lemony Snicket himself, who is obviously very disturbed at the director's insistence on introducing Count Olaf into the plot at all, let alone (supposedly) As Himself.
• Fake American: Australian Emily Browning plays Violet, who's American in accent only.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Meryl Streep took the role of Aunt Josephine upon the request of her daughter, a big fan of the books.
• Stillborn Franchise: Plans to continue the series on film stalled after the movie underperformed at the box office. A complete adaptation of the series would not happen until Netflix made their own adaptation.
• Throw It In!: In response to Klaus saying "Our parents just died," Count Olaf says, "Ah yes, of course. How very, very awful. Wait! Let me do that one more time. Give me the line again! Quickly, while it's fresh in my mind!" The dialog was supposed to end after Klaus says "Our parents just died", but Jim Carrey felt he didn't get the reaction right. Director Brad Silberling just kept the cameras rolling and Carrey ad-libbed without breaking character.
• Uncredited Role: Jane Lynch and Gilbert Gottfried both make cameos.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The sequel to the film would originally have been made in stop-motion.
  • Count Olaf's "Stefano" persona was originally going to have greasy hair and an over-the-top Italian accent.

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