Throw enough movie roles at the wall and eventually people will forget The Majestic.

That could be Jim Carrey's modus operandi this year. The perennial wannabe Oscar winner, who was nowhere to be seen on the screen in 2002, has four movies in the pipeline this year, starting with Bruce Almighty (May 23), about a guy who literally plays God.

Just wrapped is Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind -- written by ubiquitous surrealist Charlie Kaufman (Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, Adaptation) -- in which Carrey and Kate Winslet play a squabbling couple who have their bad memories wiped in a lab.

Also up, the earnest-sounding Children Of The Dust Bowl, which films later in the year.

But we'll go out on a limb and predict that the role that puts Carrey back on top will be as Count Olaf in the Lemony Snicket movie, which starts filming in the summer in North Carolina with Barry Sonnenfeld directing. The film is being produced by Nickelodeon (The Wild Thornberrys, Rugrats).

For those without kids, Lemony Snicket is the pseudonymous author of a series of hilariously morose books called A Series Of Unfortunate Events -- about the adventures of the Beaudelaire orphans, who go from book to book dodging the schemes of a criminally motivated actor named Count Olaf to steal their inheritance.

The darkest children's lit since Roald Dahl, the first Lemony Snicket book begins with the death of the children's parents in a fire, and doesn't cheer up a whit. Naturally, the books are hugely popular.

The biggest challenge, however, is that the books -- which now number 13 -- all take place within months of the deaths of the Beaudelaire parents, which makes casting children problematic. Something to consider with Harry Potter's voice changing after just two movies.


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