Jason Bateman has been the tireless champion behind the “Arrested Development” movie, but lately, rather than talking it up as a go project that will shoot imminently (remember last December and early in 2009 everyone expected to be shooting the film before 2009 was finished), he’s sounding much more pragmatic or even skeptical about the project.
In an interview with MTV last week that no one seemed to notice because of TIFF, Bateman said, “Perhaps that ship has sailed,” he said in response to the question, “when does it get to be too late?”
“I guess the public will decide on that,” he said and also suggested he realizes fans’ patience has been tested with all that talk that has amounted to zilch. “I personally think… I feel bad talking about it. It’s a tired story. I’m so sorry. I don’t bring it up, people,” he implored into the camera. “Nice people bring it up and I answer honestly. And the honest answer is, that [series creator] Mitch Hurwitz is a busy guy, he just had a very busy television season, now that that has finished, he’s now intensely writing the movie. My guess is that he’s halfway done with it. My guess is we’d be we’d be shooting in eight, nine, 10 months then it would be out six or seven months after that.”
So new time frame is 17 months from now which would land it in February 2011, and that’s just a random guess. We’re we told that this movie was being written at the beginning of this year?
Ok, so it is time officially for a moratorium on all “Arrested Development” film stories, i.e., this includes the cooperation of the entire Internet not asking the cast and creators for a least another six months about the film? The answer is yes. Uhh, we realize we’re not helping here…
In related Jason Bateman news he says despite everyone’s claims that the entire cast will be back for “Hancock 2,” he says he hasn’t been contacted at all about participating in the film. “So, it’s surprising to me that Variety and The Hollywood Reporter would write that story, because they are usually pretty well vetted before they write something and that was completely false,” he told reporters today promoting, “Couples Retreat. “I haven’t heard anything about it and the whole thing about me being on board? Couldn’t be farther from the truth.”
