When devoted Arrested Development fans heard about a potential AD movie, it was as if a collective sigh of relief was let out.
We had all been holding our breaths for quite some time. When the groundbreaking sitcom went off the air in February 2006, were fans and critics upset, there was a sense of disbelief and confusion.
Then, despite hints in the 2006 series finale that the Bluths would be coming to the big screen, nothing official had been stated.
Not until recent events has Arrested Development come to the tip of every moviegoer’s tongue.
Jason Bateman, who starred in the show as Michael Bluth, stated on many occasions that he would love to do an Arrested Development movie. While Bateman has been promoting his summer flick “Hancock”, the question on everyone’s mind remains: “Will the Bluths be back to stir up trouble on the big screen?”
The answer is yes. But it is a reluctant yes.
The film is in the early stages of shooting, and as Bateman said in an interview with MTV, “We all want to do it. All the actors want to do it, the writers want to do it, and the boss wants to do it…but it’s a long, sort of drawn-out, complicated business process. “
“ ‘Arrested Development’ is such a specific tone,” he said. “It doesn’t lend itself to mass appeal, as played out by the fact that it’s cancelled. So it has to be done for a price. They can’t spend the money they spent on ‘Hancock’.”
But here is what I find uncanny, and very ‘Arrested Development’.
On camera, we have a family that is very misunderstood in their community, with one guy who is trying to make the family appeal to a vast group of people so that they can be back on top.
Behind the camera we have a show that is critically hailed, but is misunderstood among viewers and just wants to make the family appeal to as vast a group of people.
It’s almost as if everything is against them in the quest to strike comedy gold once again.
As a devoted fan of Arrested Development I say we try to “Save our Bluths” in any way possible!
Even though I understand how far -fetched and rather ridiculous that might sound- I think if we all come through and try to make this happen, we can bring the Bluths to the big screen and perhaps back into our homes, but most importantly, back into our hearts!