Neil Patrick Harris has booked a starring role in the indie farce The Best and the Brightest and a supporting role in CBS Films' Beastly, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Co-written and directed by Josh Shelov, The Best and the Brightest revolves around a couple from Delaware who move to New York's Upper East Side and enter the world of the city's private kindergartens.

Harris is playing the husband, who is not worried about his social status. Bonnie Somerville is on board as the class-aware wife. Also cast are Amy Sedaris, John Hodgman, Peter Serafinowicz, Bridget Regan, Kate Mulgrew and Christopher McDonald. Robert and Patricia Weiser are reteaming with Richard Schiffrin -- with whom they collaborated on the steroid documentary Bigger, Stronger, Faster* -- to produce along with Nicholas Simon.

Shelov wrote the script with Michael Jaeger. Shooting recently began in Philadelphia.

In Beastly, a modern retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Harris is playing a blind tutor who helps and bonds with a teen (Alex Pettyfer) who is shellshocked from being turned into a hideous young man. Vanessa Hudgens and Mary-Kate Olsen also star in the adaptation of the Alex Finn novel, being directed by Daniel Barnz. The movie is in preproduction in Montreal.

Is anyone besides me sick of Vanessa Hudgens and/or Mary-Kate Olsen yet?

Beastly was released March 4th, 2011 and stars Alex Pettyfer, Justin Bradley, Mary-Kate Olsen, Dakota Johnson, Erik Knudsen, Vanessa Hudgens, Karl Graboshas, Peter Krause. The film is directed by Daniel Barnz.