R.L. Stine is a cool dude. And he doesn't often speak out of school or criticize other performers, artists, or their work. But he seems rather upset with Jim Carrey's awful performance in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. In fact, he blames the comedian for ruining any chance the book adaptation had of becoming a successful movie series. It did eventually find success as a TV series on Netflix, with Season 2 already shooting and a third season expected. While Stine has yet to comment on Neil Patrick Harris' take on Lemony Snicket's Count Olaf, he had this to say about Jim Carrey.
"A really horrible movie can ruin a book franchise, look what happened to the Lemony Snicket books. Jim Carrey just ruined it. He was so awful. It's weird, they can't really translate it because Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler, is one of the funniest people on earth. I was on a panel with him, and afterwards, I swore I would never go on a panel with him again. He finished every one of my jokes. He was hilarious!"
R.L. Stine's outrage about Jim Carrey ruining the Lemony Snicket movie franchise came after Entertainment Weekly asked the author who he'd want to see play him in a biopic. And he was quick to point out what a great performance Jack Black already gave in the first Goosebumps movie, even if it is a heightened version of himself. R.L. Stine was greatly pleased with that film, as was Sony, with a sequel already on the way next year.
"Come on! Jack Black already played me! How lucky was I that the movie turned out good?"
R.L. Stine had a lot more to say in his question and answer session. Perhaps the most interesting of which was the fact that he's ripped-off his favorite Stephen King novel 5 different times, and has no qualms about it. He says this about Pet Sematary, calling it the scariest book he's ever read.
"Pet Sematary by Stephen King is the all-time creepiest. I've stolen that plot about five times, I had to!"
You can't fault the man for being honest. R.L. Stine goes onto say that he's in the midst of binging Netflix's Bloodline series. And claims he'd want Jack Reacher at his side if he was allowed to be friends with one fictional character during the impending zombie apocalypse. He also has the nerve to call The Girl on the Train the most overrated book he's ever read, but to each their own.
Perhaps most surprising to learn from his quick chat is that he has to buy his own books from the book store because his publisher won't send them to the house. He's not stock piling his own novels just for fun though. He explains about heading to the book store to buy his own books when asked if he actually does this.
"I do it all the time! People are very polite. They don't say anything. Publishers are cheap, so I always have to buy my own stuff. I do it constantly. I give away a lot of books, like for school auctions, we'll give away a set of 10 autographed Goosebumps books. So I buy Goosebumps all the time."
The author ends his interview saying he doesn't get scared at movies. That horror movies make him laugh. Which sounds about right. You can read all his fun answers over at Entertainment Weekly. We'll have to wait until his next round to hear how he feels about the Netflix Lemony Snicket show.