Scott Rudin plans Unfortunate Events

Out producer Scott Rudin will produce the film adaptation of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events for Nickelodeon Films, reports Variety. Daniel Handler is writing the scripts, based on the books' tales of the Baudelaire orphans and their confrontations with the evil Count Olaf, who's out to steal their inheritance. Even though the children's novels have been popular enough to sell 4 million books in the United States alone, they are seen as difficult to translate to film because of their surreal, gothic narratives that have been described as a melding of Edward Gorey and Roald Dahl. The participation of Rudin is seen as giving the project new momentum.