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A movie about a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together?

July

I first posted news in February that an Arrested Development movie was in the offing. (Yikes, I’m giddy just typing those words.)

Well, a few months later the idea is taking shape. The Times confirmed the news once again last week in a profile interview with Jason Bateman.

A big-screen version of Arrested Development is planned for next year. “When it was on TV, if you missed one word the whole third act could be blown for you. And TV is a different experience. You come home and you’ve got to finish a call so you miss the first ten minutes or you get snacky and you go to the fridge and you miss another two minutes, so it’s a different experience to film.”

If that’s not good enough for you, ask his dad. Jeffrey Tambor, who played daddy George Bluth to Bateman’s Michael Bluth, told Entertainment Weekly the project is a go.

“After months of speculation. I think we have finally figured out for sure that we are indeed doing an Arrested Development movie,” Tambor told EW.com at the premiere of Hellboy 2 on Sunday. “I am very excited about that. I love that cast and crew and I felt like we had more to say.”

As EW points out, Fox axed the series one year after it won the Emmy for best comedy. They were probably planning ahead to make room for Bionic Woman.

Glancing at that cast photo (courtesy Fox), it’d appear all those folks should be available. None of them are dispensible.

Tony Hale (Buster Bluth) has four projects due out later this year and four more next. He’s also joining the cast of Chuck. OK, he’s busy. I don’t care. Lock him in. It’s not AD without Buster. (Better call Liza Minelli’s people too.)

Michael Cera (George Michael) is a superstar on the heels of Superbad and Juno. He’s got a handful of projects in the works too, but he’s an Apatow guy now and I’m sure old Judd will keep his slate clear for this.

Alia Shawkat (Maeby) looks eminently available.

Will Arnett could be a problem. He’s huge. But if he can make time for 30 Rock cameos, he can make time for AD.

Tambor is surprisingly busy, but from the comments above he sounds eager as ever.

Bateman stars in Hancock with Will Smith, due out tomorrow, and is part of Ricky Gervais’s all-star cast in This Side of the Truth, which is in post-production.

Jessica Walter (Lucille) looks like she has more free time these days than Shawkat. Sorry, ma’am.

Ditto for Mrs. Ellen Degeneres, aka Portia DiRossi.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 at 2:26 pm by Brian Howard.
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