Patrick Warburton to play Lemony Snicket in Netflix drama

PanARMENIAN.Net - Netflix has found its Lemony Snicket. Rules of Engagement and The Tick alum Patrick Warburton has landed the key role in the streaming giant's drama series A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.

Picked up straight-to-series, A Series of Unfortunate Events tells the tale of orphaned children Violet (Malina Weissman), Klaus (Louis Hynes) and Sunny Baudelaire, who find themselves in the villainous clutches of an evil uncle named Count Olaf (Neil Patrick Harris) who has designs on their family fortune.

Warburton will take on the role of Lemony Snicket, the harried and troubled writer-photographer who is falsely accused of felonies and is continuously hunted by police and his enemies — including the fire-starting side of secret organization Volunteer Fire Department (VFD). Jude Law voiced the role of Lemony Snicket in the 2004 feature film.

For Warburton, the role comes ahead of the March 15 debut of NBC's midseason series Crowded, where he is the male lead in the family comedy. He also was rumored to have been reprising his role as comic book character The Tick in Amazon's reboot, which is currently casting its leading man. Warburton's credits include Seinfeld, Rules of Engagement, NewsRadio and voice roles on Family Guy. He is repped by ICM Partners and 3 Arts.

Mark Hudis will take over as showrunner on the series, which hails from Paramount Television in association with Netflix. Daniel Handler, the author of the books who uses the pen name Lemony Snicket, executive produces.