5:40 PM PDT 4/23/2013 by Andy Lewis
Actor Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother) has signed a three-book deal with Random House for a middle-grade series, Nightmares!, the publisher announced Tuesday.
The adventure series centers on a group of friends who try to save their neighborhood from fear.
“Ultimately, it’s a story about learning that we can accomplish anything, as long as we are brave enough to try,” Segel said in a statement.
Kirsten Miller, the author of previous middle-grade series Kiki Strike and The Eternal Ones, will co-author with Segel.
Segel revealed that the books were in the works three weeks ago during a forum with director Jonathan Demme following a screening of their 2008 film Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
During the event at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, N.Y., Segel said the idea originally started as a screenplay he sold "super cheap" before he became a well-known actor.
The project was never made and eight years later he bought it back for the same amount he sold it for.
Once he re-acquired the project he decided to rework it as a children's book series.
The first novel in the trilogy will be published in 2014.
