“Arrested Development” was canceled in 2006 after only three seasons on the air, something that the series’ devoted fans have loudly bemoaned approximately every day since then. But after five years of complaining and wondering if the long-discussed “AD” movie would ever happen, the clouds have parted to give us this ray of sunshine: the entire cast will reunite next summer to film a 10-episode season AND a movie. Series creator Mitch Hurwitz announced the news at this weekend’s New Yorker festival, and stars Jason Bateman and Will Arnett confirmed the plans on Twitter.

Short version for you ADD types: 20th Century Fox TV will produce the episodes, with Netflix and Showtime emerging as the early frontrunners to air the miniseries, which would serve as a sort of catch-up/primer for the movie. The long version:

Read the rest of this entry »

Ordinarily I wouldn’t have anything to say about the New Yorker, because I’m not particularly interested in reading 12,000-word articles about opera in China. But this year’s New Yorker Festival has something noteworthy: a reunion of the cast of “Arrested Development.”

On Sunday, October 2nd, Nancy Franklin will moderate an exclusive “Bluth family reunion” panel, featuring the creator of “Arrested Development,” Mitchell Hurwitz, and the cast: Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, David Cross, Portia de Rossi, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jeffrey Tambor, and Jessica Walter. [New Yorker via Gothamist]

Tickets sold out for the panel almost immediately, as there are countless fans of the show who plan to go solely for the Q&A portion of the panel, which is going to sound exactly like this: “What’s the status of the Arrested Development movie?” “Is the script done for Arrested Development movie?” “When could you start filming the Arrested Development movie?” And “Excuse me, do these effectively hide my thunder?”

Next month, FOX will add “Sit Down, Shut Up” — about teachers and staff at a small-town high school — to its Sunday night all-animation programming.  The show, a re-make of a short-lived Australian sitcom, was set up by the creator of “Arrested Development” and features the voices of Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, Kristin Chenoweth (rowr!), Will Forte, Nick Kroll, Cheri Oteri, Kenan Thompson, and Henry Winkler.  (And for those of you with toddlers: the characters were drawn by Mo Willems, author of an excellent series of children’s books about a bratty pigeon.)  Hard to imagine Will Arnett and Jason Bateman signing on for something that sucks, but with Kenan Thompson, you never know.

Below is a video of Arnett and Bateman describing each other in a promotion for the show.  Hey, remember “Arrested Development”?  Really cool of FOX to cancel that.

Read the rest of this entry »