By Karen Aney (The Cascade) – Email
Date Posted: October 24, 2011
Print Edition: October 19, 2011
Rumours of an Arrested Development movie – or better yet, a whole new season – have been floating around for years now. There have been mentions of contracts, claims of scripts, and more. Again and again, though, fans have been disappointed. Doesn’t creator Mitch Hurwitz understand that you should never promise crazy a baby? Proverbially, of course. We’ve been toyed with too many times – perhaps many of you have proclaimed “say goodbye to these!” – but this time, there’s been confirmation from many angles. So what has us hoping?
The thing that got this ball rolling was when Hurwitz confirmed the show would be returning. Yes, he’s done this before – but there are details this time. Perhaps they come from new cash flow: maybe he found a banana stand, maybe he joined up with Bob Loblaw and his profits from the retainer – either way, there are details. Apparently, there will be at least ten episodes, with each one focusing primarily on a single character. Previous rumblings of a possible movie did not include such lofty ambitions; in fact, they seemed uncharacteristically poorly-thought-out for a show that finely crafted every move and mishap of the comically-dysfunctional Bluth family.
Because Hurwitz clearly enjoys playing games with his audience’s heart, and for those of us who haven’t taken forget-me-now pills since the last promise of new Development, let’s look at some other sources. First, Jason 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!” Well, if Michael’s on board, things are looking up a bit. He’s quite the cupid, you know. He can stick an arrow in my buttocks anytime (uh, moving along).
Will Arnett backed this up with his own tweet: “I’m peeing with @batemanjason at the moment..and we can confirm that we are going to make new AD eps and a movie”. Well, if G.O.B. says so, maybe it really is true. I mean, he doesn’t do tricks, he’s an illusionist, and tricks are for whores – so maybe he isn’t trying to trick us? Trick, trick, trick?
Entertainment Weekly has confirmed that the producers of the show are in talks with both Showtime and Netflix. Showtime has attempted to come to the show’s rescue before, though, and proved themselves no Steve Holt (you just mentally raised your arms in the air, didn’t you?). Their talks to rescue the show after its abandonment by Fox in 2006 proved fruitless. Even if they don’t come through this time, Netflix may be a strong contender: with the bankruptcy of video stores across North America, their subscribers are at an all-time high. Airing this long-awaited return would be a step in the right direction.
Ron Howard, the show’s producer and narrator, adds some logic to the promises. In a press conference, he explained: “In fact, where everyone’s been for five years became a big part of the story. So, in working on the screenplay I found that even if I just gave five minutes per character to that backstory, we were halfway through the movie before the characters got together.” So maybe the empty promises have come from storyline trouble in the past? The characters are just too awesome for just a movie? A movie can’t single-handedly tell the story without a hook to help it out? It makes sense. Thanks for the logic, Howard. Marry me.
It looks good this time, people. Keep hoping, and in the mean time, keep this advice in mind: watch out for loose seals, don’t eat hot ham water, no touching, chicken dances could get you in trouble, sex with a robot vacuum cleaner is generally a bad idea, Team-o-cil has some gnarly side effects, and analrapists are okay so long as there isn’t a space in between.
