TV News: ‘Arrested Development’ May Return For New Season, Movie

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CHICAGO – Could this be the news fans of the old FOX series “Arrested Development” have been waiting for? Since the final episode of the canceled series aired on February 10, 2006, rumors and hope have swirled around that the comedy series would come back for a full length feature film. Now, the long wait may be over and fans could be getting more than just a movie.

Show creator Mitchell Hurwitz and the cast of the show have said for years that they wanted to do the film, and for years rumors have surfaced saying the movie was happening. However, fans continued to wait for filming to actually begin. Yesterday, at an “Arrested Development” reunion in New York, Hurwitz told the crowd on hand and the NY Times that even though everyone involved in making the show wants to continue, there is more to it:

“We don’t completely own the property, there are business people involved and studios and that kind of thing,” Hurwitz said. “Just creatively, I have been working on the screenplay for a long time and found that as time went by, there was so much more to the story. In fact, where everyone’s been for five years became a big part of the story. So in working on the screenplay, I found even if I just gave five minutes per character to that back story, we were halfway through the movie before the characters got together.”

The plan Hurwitz put forth is for the show to return for ten episodes, each focusing on one of the Bluth family characters, and then to finish off the entire series with a feature film. While this is great news, Hurwitz said that with the business ends of the deal still needing to be worked out, they are only “80 percent of the way to an answer.” 80 percent may seem high to many, but after years of rumors saying the movie was 100 percent happening, this is hard news to completely believe.

Jason Bateman and Will Arnett got in on the rumors yesterday on Twitter, giving more hope to fans that the news is real. Bateman tweeted “It’s true. We will do 10 episodes and the movie. Probably shoot them all together next summer for a release in early ‘13. VERY excited!” Arnett followed by tweeting “I’m peeing with @batemanjason at the moment..and we can confirm that we are going to make new AD eps and a movie.”

“Arrested Development” follows the story of Michael Bluth (Bateman) and his chaotic family that includes a father in prison, an alcoholic mother, a magician brother, an actor/analrapist (that’s analyst and therapist) brother-in-law, and a son who lacks self-confidence…just to name a few. The show lasted three seasons before FOX canceled the series due to low ratings. However, the show has gained a major cult following since its cancellation and is considered by many to be one of the best comedy television series ever.

The show also featured Michael Cera, Portia de Rossi, Tony Hale, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Alia Shawkat, and David Cross as members of the Bluth family, and Ron Howard as the show’s narrator.

By TIM MARTENS Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com tim@hollywoodchicago.com