On Netflix, Orange is the New Black and Neil Patrick Harris is the new Jim Carrey!
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Harris is in negotiations to star in A Series of Unfortunate Events, a new television series adaptation currently in development at Netflix. If Harris signs on, he will portray the villain of the series, Count Olaf, who was played by Carrey in the 2004 feature film.
While the initial report seemed to indicate that Harris’ deal hasn’t closed, Harris essentially confirmed his involvement on twitter and seemed to slip into his character even before the message was over!
I’m excitedish to portray Count Olaf – its spending all day with those three horrible child actors that will be a challenge. #sneer #shudder
— Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) January 16, 2016
This will be Harris’ first scripted series since How I Met Your Mother came to an end. Harris more recently hosted a variety series called Best Time Ever on NBC, but it was canceled after only eight episodes.
Related: Barry Sonnenfeld Will Direct Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix
Daniel Handler wrote the 13 book A Series of Unfortunate Events series under the pen name Lemony Snicket, and Handler will be executive producing the show for Netflix. Joining Handler as an executive producer is Men in Black director Barry Sonnenfeld, who was actually slated to direct the 2004 movie adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events before he dropped out of the project.
The leading characters of A Series of Unfortunate Events are Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire, a trio of orphans who are the legitimate heirs of the Baudelaire fortune. Count Olaf is a distant relative of the orphans who would do anything to get the fortune for himself, and he leaves behind a lot of death and destruction in his wake. Olaf’s schtick also includes disguises which only the Baudelaire children appear to see through.
This project was first revealed back in 2014, and it was supposedly fast tracked for development by Paramount TV and Netflix. With Harris in place, A Series of Unfortunate Events needs a new showrunner to replace Mark Hudis, whose departure was announced last week.
A Series of Unfortunate Events season 1 will be 13 episodes long. But at the moment, Netflix isn’t saying when it will be released.
