Streep, Law, Aiken & Browning Join Lemony Snicket

Meryl Streep and Jude Law are joining Jim Carrey in Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Streep will play Aunt Josephine, and Law is being recruited by Brad Silberling to play narrator Lemony Snicket in the Paramount/DreamWorks adaptation of the Daniel Handler children's book series. Young actors Liam Aiken and Emily Browning have also been set to play Klaus and Violet Baudelaire, two of the three orphans who are the central protagonists of the series.

Streep's Aunt Josephine character is one of a succession of relatives who takes in the Baudelaires, who were orphaned after their parents died in a fire. Josephine appeared in the third Snicket book "The Wide Window." She lives in a house perched atop a cliff above Lake Lachrymose, which is filled with leeches, and Josephine is terrified of every modern convenience. She's an easy mark for Count Olaf (Carrey), a sinister relative who, with a group of odd henchmen, is trying to kill the kids to cash in their family fortune.

The film will begin production in November, for a holiday 2004 release.