diff --git a/devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py b/devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
index 19114d30d..0a1762dbc 100644
--- a/devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
+++ b/devscripts/make_lazy_extractors.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 from __future__ import unicode_literals, print_function
 
 from inspect import getsource
+import io
 import os
 from os.path import dirname as dirn
 import sys
@@ -95,5 +96,5 @@ def build_lazy_ie(ie, name):
 
 module_src = '\n'.join(module_contents) + '\n'
 
-with open(lazy_extractors_filename, 'wt') as f:
+with io.open(lazy_extractors_filename, 'wt', encoding='utf-8') as f:
     f.write(module_src)