Daniel Handler

On playing in bands: "Our Gypsy tango version of "When Doves Cry" was our biggest hit. But we were not destined for greatness."

What was fun about putting Rick together is that it got put together at the same moment that Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events was getting put together, so I would be in one part of New York, in a meeting about how they were going to build a lake indoors, and then I would take the subway down to another part of New York, where we would talk about the fact that if it snowed that night there would be snow in the movie, and if it didn't, there wouldn't. And I also wished that I could steal a tiny portion of the budget for the Lemony Snicket movie, like the budget for the lunches that we had, and put that money in a sack and take it downtown and give it to the production of Rick. So the two experiences were about as far apart as you could be and still be in the same medium.With Rick, the actors were all making enormous sacrifices to be in the film. Just looking at Bill Pullman changing clothes behind a screen in the corner of a rented hotel meeting room was fascinating, and then to go to the opposite end of the country where they were filming the Snicket movie, and watch Jim Carrey in a ring of trailers-one where he works, and one where he got dressed, and one where he got makeup on, in this sort of Wild West arrangement on the parking lot of the Paramount lot... It was fascinating. And then, also, everyone involved in the production of Rick didn't want to change anything-sometimes, I think, maybe even to the film's detriment. While in the Snicket movie, everyone had an opinion, and all the content was constantly in flux, and I often can't remember which scenes are and aren't in the final product, because I saw so many different versions of the movie that I forget which ended up on the cutting-room floor. Show less «

About A Series of Unfortunate Events: "Well, for a while, it seemed like it was going to be the most exciting motion picture ever made, and then there was a huge changing of the guard in which I was more or less fired as a screenwriter, and the producer quit, and the director was either fired or quit, depending on whom you ask. If you ask him, he says he was fired. So then for a while it looked like it was going to be the worst movie ever made, hopelessly embarrassing, and by the time it was finishing up, I was so grateful that it wasn't the worst movie ever made that I overlooked many things that might have otherwise upset me." Show less «