Andrew Toth/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — How I Met Your Mother veteran Neil Patrick Harris was playing the role of co-host on Live with Kelly Wednesday, where he dished about his upcoming project — a Netflix re-telling of the popular book series Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Harris will be playing the villain Count Olaf — who was played by Jim Carrey in a 2004 big-screen adaptation that was well-received, but failed to impress at the box office. That version, Harris explained, while good, was too “truncated” in his opinion, as they were trying to adapt a series of 13 books into one film.
The series — written by author Daniel Handler under the pen name Lemony Snicket — centers on a trio of orphaned siblings and their evil uncle, NPH’s aforementioned Olaf, who schemes to steal their inheritance.
The new project — “the most expensive show [Netflix] has ever done,” Harris points out — will be produced and directed in large part by Men in Black series director Barry Sonnenfeld. The Netflix version is “more spread out,” the actor said, with each book comprising two episodes; eight episodes — four books’ worth — have already been shot, Harris notes.
“I’m super excited about it,” the actor enthuses, “It’s a much darker take on the material that’s been seen before…It’s not rated ‘R’ dark — in addition for it being for adults and twenty-somethings and teenagers, they want it to be for kids as well.”
Harris was bummed, however, because he wasn’t allowed to leak any exclusive peeks of the show, which will debut in 2017.
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