Cancelled after a paltry three seasons, Arrested Development is one of those holy-grail TV shows both for its fans and creative team, who are all hanging on to the hope that it will one day be resurrected. The long-mooted movie currently finally seems to be on, but Deadline's sister site TV Line reports this morning that Arrested Development is also heading back to TV, for a "mini-season" filling in the gap between the last episode and the film.
Arrested Development, for those sadly not in the know, is the story of a wealthy family who lost everything, and the one son who had no choice but to keep them all together. That one son was Jason Bateman, and the extended family, the Bluths, was made up of Will Arnett, Michael Cera, David Cross, Jeffrey Tambor, Portia De Rossi, Alia Shawkat, Tony Hale and Jessica Walter.
All were present yesterday at a panel at the New Yorker festival, along with series creator Mitch Hurwitz, who unveiled the new plan. The idea is that the season would run to ten or so episodes, each one focused on a particular character: a system that would circumvent the scheduling problems inherent in getting the large cast back together.
Bateman later weighed in on Twitter that, "It's true. We will do ten episodes and the movie. Probably shoot them all together next summer for a release in early 2013. VERY excited!"
There's no indication yet of where the series would air, but Deadline reportthat Showtime and Netflix are likely candidates. Watch this space for further developments!