About the Arrested Development News

A new season AND a new movie? It's an ILLUSION, Michael. For now.

We were as excited as anyone could justifiably be when we heard that Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz confirmed that he was writing a new fourth season of the show and a movie to wrap up the legendary series. It's been five long years since the Bluth family last hit the small screen, and every year since, there have been some sort of rumours that the show was alternately coming back to TV or was going to be spun into a feature film. Hurwitz was in New York alongside the cast of the comedy for a "Bluth Family Reunion" at the New Yorker Festival, where he announced he would make nine or 10 more episodes that would fill audiences in on what each character on the show had been up to for the last five years. That season would lead up to a film, at which point the legions of AD fans can finally die happy.

Unless, of course, it doesn't happen at all. You know that AD episode where Michael is always reneging on his promise of taking George Michael to the family cottage? That's basically been the case for the last five years, with Hurwitz as Michael and legions of desperate fans as his hapless son (less the whole cousin-kissing thing. Kudos to The Mark's managing/arts editor Emily Burke for the analogy). Despite Hurwitz saying all the rumours of a return from the past five years – such as the one about Michael Cera demanding more money to be a part of it – had been an elaborate ruse, some observers, notably NPR's Linda Holmes, are skeptical. The biggest problem? There isn't studio backing for the project yet – just Hurwitz and the cast. Says Holmes:

"This is confirmation that Hurwitz, who has been agreeing that the project is going forward for years, still says it is. And the cast, which has also mostly said over and over that they wanted to do it, still says they want to do it ... As hard as it is to hear, if there are no 'film companies on board' yet, then 'announcement' and 'confirmation' are not the right words, and there's no deal. There aren't any episodes if nobody has agreed to air them. There isn't any movie if nobody has agreed to finance one."

We've always maintained that we won't believe AD rumours until we see Jessica Walter slinging back vodkas on our TV set with our very own eyes. And as unbelievably amazing as a new season and a movie would surely be, we've been through this song and dance before with Hurwitz et al. (Although one would think that Ron Howard, the show's narrator and one of the execs, would carry enough sway around Hollywood to get the financing for this together.) Until we see a trailer, we'll stick with our well-worn DVDs and AD fan fiction.