Jason Segel set to share his ‘Nightmares!’ in three-book series

Jason Segel is taking his goofy sensibility and packaging it for middle-schoolers in the form of a three-book deal with Random House, the company announced Wednesday.

The first installment of “Nightmares!,” co-written with “The Eternal Ones” author Kirsten Miller, is due out next year, the publisher said in a news release.

Segel first turned his inspiration, an adventure about kids who have to save their town from fear, into a screenplay, according to CBS News. That got stuck in turnaround, but the “How I Met Your Mother” actor bought back the rights recently and converted the screenplay concept into a three-part book series. In the story, originally conceived when Segel was about 21 years old, fear manifests as nightmare creatures that have entered real life.

“The Muppets” star and screenwriter first mentioned the existence of the books at a Q&A; after a screening of “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” earlier this month in New York, VH1 reported. Jonathan Demme, host of the session, said the series was the focus of a “bidding war” among publishing houses.

“Ultimately, it’s a story about learning that we can accomplish anything, as long as we are brave enough to try,” Segel said in the release. “These are the types of stories that always inspired me.”

The accomplishing-anything story line sounds a little like the vampire-musical subplot in “Sarah Marshall,” if you ask us. And that’s a good thing. But we have to wonder: When the first book comes out in fall 2014 via Delacorte Press, will there be puppets?

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