In the cult favourite meta sitcom, Community, there’s a saying: Six seasons and a movie! (the exclamation is important). It’s a rallying cry for a show that’s on the verge of cancellation but which fans believe to be deserving of much more. Mitch Hurwitz’ Arrested Development, a show that was about as critically praised as could be but tanked in the ratings, was cancelled after 3 seasons, because apparently the world is stupid. But 7 years since it went off the air, it finally returned with a fourth season on Netflix, to much fanfare and praise. And now, according to Hurwitz, it’s one step closer to achieving their very own six seasons and a movie!
Season 4 of the tale of television’s most dysfunctional family, the Bluths (sorry Bundys, you’ve lost your title) was a risky endeavour. With the show moving to online streaming service Netflix, the format changed slightly, as the entire season was produced in one go and then made available on the VOD service in its entirety, including a cliffhanger season closer. Hurwitz had no assurance that after 7 years, fans would return to the show in enough numbers to enable a resolution to that cliffhanger, but the gamble paid off as it was a huge success.
So when will Season 5 be showing up to wrap up those dangling threads? Well, it won’t, as Hurwitz has a different future mapped out. According to what he told Rolling Stone, Hurwitz wants to do an Arrested Development movie first (something that was toyed with in the show’s hiatus between Seasons 3 & 4), and then follow it up with another season on Netflix.
“I’m working on the movie right now. I can’t get into much more detail because I don’t want to scare anybody off. I don’t want to be presumptuous about it. I don’t own the property outright – it’s a 20th Century Fox property. But everybody seems really into it and really eager to make a movie.”
“I’m hoping it happens as soon as possible. But I want to be very careful about not putting out false information. I want to get a time and tell everybody when it’s happening and not play with people. Right now, I’m trying to do something else for Netflix and a movie project and things. I’m always sort of superstitious about talking about this stuff before it happens. It’s the best way to guarantee it doesn’t happen.”
As you can hear, nothing has been made official quite yet, but the prospect of making a movie first instead of a full season would certainly be more appealing to the show’s cast-members, who have all gone on to rather busy solo careers since first starring in the show, for one simple reason: Time.
“A TV season is a six-month commitment. But I think it would be very doable to get them together for four or five weeks to make a movie.”
While I’m not entirely convinced that the tone and feel of Arrested Development would translate 100% successfully in a movie, I’m not about to be the Debbie Downer that decries more Arrested Development, so bring it on. Six seasons and a movie!
Last Updated: August 29, 2013
