Neil Patrick Harris lands lead role in Netflix's 'A Series of Unfortunate Events'

LOS ANGELES, March 15 (UPI) -- Neil Patrick Harris has signed on to star as the villainous Count Olaf in Netflix's upcoming adaptation of Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events.

The project which has been ordered to series, is set to be directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (The Addams Family, Men in Black) and will begin production this month in Vancouver according to Deadline.

Based on the classic children's book of the same name, A Series of Unfortunate Events follows orphaned children Violet (Malina Weissman), Klaus (Louis Hynes) and Sunny Baudelaire who live with their evil uncle Count Olaf (Harris) who is after their family's fortune. Count Olaf was originally portrayed by Jim Carey in the 2004 feature film adaption of the book.

This will mark Harris' return to a television series following his long-running stint as Barney Stinson on CBS' hit comedy sitcom, How I Met Your Mother.

Patrick Warburton has also been cast according to The Hollywood Reporter as narrator Lemony Snicket, a troubled writer-photographer who is falsely accused of felonies and is continuously hunted by police and his enemies.

Snicket is also the pen name of the book's author Daniel Handler who is also executive producing the series.