Author Lemony Snicket is upset with Director Brad Silberling

Lemony Snicket speaks! And he's upset with Brad Silberling, director of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, on the DVD version that came out Tuesday.

It's not because of all those changes Mr. Silberling made in his adaptation of the first three Lemony Snicket books. It's because of the changes he didn't make.

If you listen to the audio commentaries on the DVD extras (Paramount Home Video. PG. DVDs $30 and $19.95; VHS, $15. 107 min.), you can hear Mr. Snicket scolding Mr. Silberling, saying he should have made the movie more cheerful than the books.

But being an enormous Lemony Snicket fan, Mr. Silberling says, he tried to do everything in the most Lemony way possible. "I love the books," Mr. Silberling says on the phone from Maui, where he's been vacationing with his wife, Amy Brenneman (star of the television hit Judging Amy) and their 4-year-old daughter, Charlotte.

Even though the Los Angeles-based director only had to read the first three books to do the movie, he told Paramount Pictures executives he had to read the rest for "research, which was bogus," he admits. "I just wanted to keep reading the books."

Reading ahead came in handy, because he got the idea for "The Littlest Elf" opening from the seventh book, The Vile Village. And while Mr. Snicket gives him a hard time on the commentaries, Daniel Handler, the Lemony Snicket author, has become a friend. Mr. Handler even helped Mr. Silberling with the moviescript.

"He wrote the opening for The Littlest Elf," Mr. Silberling says. "He wrote that monologue when Olaf pulls up on a boat to rescue the children. We got on really well because he knew that any changes I made to help the structure of the movie were out of respect."

After the movie's success, studio execs are committed to making the sequel, Mr. Silberling says. And so is he. Unfortunately, that could take a while as the script hasn't been written.

But don't despair, Snicket fans. Mr. Silberling says he is in touch with Mr. Handler, and the 12th book (of the projected 13-book series) should be ready for a fall release. Will Mr. Silberling get to see the manuscript in advance – you know, for, um, "research"? "I hope so," he says. "That would be one of the best perks of my job."