Jason Segel Children's Book: 'How I Met Your Mother' Star Announces Kids' Literary Project 'Nightmares!'
Actor and screenwriter Jason Segel recently signed a book deal with Random House Books for a trilogy series for middle-grade readers. His first book in the planned series will be Nightmares! and will be published in the fall of 2014. The How I Met Your Mother star is set to team up with young adult author Kristen Miller (The Eternal Ones) for this project, which is based around Segel's first screenplay. After writing and starring in The Muppets, this venture into kids' books seems like the right step for Segel. He recently sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to discuss Nightmares!
When asked to describe Nightmares!, Segel said:
"[It] features these witches who steal the protagonist's younger brother and take him to the nightmare world. The brother, along with a group of friends using a magical book, must mount a rescue journey. Along the way each member of the group has to face and overcome their biggest fear on the journey to rescue the younger brother."
He also explained that there will be a companion book involved with Nightmares!:
"I always loved bonus materials. They always made a fictional world seem real to me. The stepmom in the book is actually a children's book author herself. The kids use one of her books, which turns out to have magical properties, to enter the nightmare world. So we're going to do that as a standalone book. Her readership is younger than my book so this will be aimed at a slightly younger audience as an introduction to the main book."
Segel then said that the inspiration for this story came from his childhood appreciation for Tim Burton, The Goonies, Labyrinth, Roald Dahl and Edward Gorey.
The interview also includes some background on Jason's childhood, his support and help from Judd Apatow, and more information on Nightmares!