Another bit of recent news you might have missed relates to A Series of Unfortunate Events, the Netflix series that’s based on Lemony Snicket‘s A Series of Unfortunate Events book series.

It’s being reported that Neil Patrick Harris, star of How I Met Your Mother, Gone Girl, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, Starship Troopers, and Doogie Howser, M.D., has entered into negotiations to take on the role of Count Olaf, the villainous uncle of siblings Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire who gains custody of the children after their parents perish in a fire and is only interested in stealing their inherited fortune. Jim Carrey previously played the role in the movie adaptation of the same name.

The series is being produced by Paramount Television along with Daniel Handler, the actual author behind the pen name/character of the books, Lemony Snicket.

Before diving into the book series, Snicket himself warns that they’re very unpleasant and might be better to skip all together:

Dear Reader,

I’m sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. From the very first page of this book when the children are at the beach and receive terrible news, continuing on through the entire story, disaster lurks at their heels. One might say they are magnets for misfortune.

In this short book alone, the three youngsters encounter a greedy and repulsive villain, itchy clothing, a disastrous fire, a plot to steal their fortune, and cold porridge for breakfast.

It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket

A Series of Unfortunate events was announced by Netflix back in November of 2014. Neil Patrick Harris is the first announced casting, and it’s not yet known when we’ll see the series premiere on the streaming service.

[Source: Live Feed]