Lord knows that right about now we hate reporting on the “Arrested Development,” as a random cast member will usually shit a lame duck quote into a journos mouth and a some blogger will call it a sundae, but today there’s some real news.
At a Television Critics Association press tour on Tuesday (January 13), series creator Mitch Hurwitz was on hand to discuss his new animated series, “Sit Down, Shut Up,” which coincidentally features two voice actors named Jason Bateman and Will Arnett.
Naturally, reporters have zero interest in talking about anything other than “Arrested Development,” so the conversations soon devolved into that show. Hurwitz quipped that the story of the ‘AD’ movie would be, ” ‘Valkyrie’ meets ‘Hotel for Dogs’ ,” but quickly added for all the numbskull’s in the room who might report it verbatim that he was kidding.
However, one interesting thing he said was that no script was finished. “Well, I haven’t written the story, truthfully. ‘The Valkyrie’ thing was truly just a ruse. I do want to wait until I know who’s in it, because it won’t be like a big paying job, this movie. So it’s not something I want to do on spec. I kind of want to know that we’re making this. We’re working on it.”
This is odd because insiders at Fox Searchlight have already told us that a script is finished and in their offices. Maybe it’s a first draft? Weird that Hurwitz would contradict that unless he’s just not pleased or finished with the copy that exists?
Meanwhile, psychotic fans of the defunct FOX TV show have called for the blood of Michael Cera to be drank from his body while still screaming alive at the even mere suggestion that the young actor may not want to appear in the film. His not confirmed participation is making it look like he’s the one preventing the film from going forward and obviously, Hurwitz alludes to that above.
Hurwitz, who made a brilliant cameo on Cera’s Internet-only TV show “Clark and Michael” last year had lots of praise for Cera and said the actor carefully chooses his roles and takes time before he makes decisions.
“I will say about Michael Cera – he is a very, very smart guy. He’s a very thoughtful guy. I remember when we were casting for Arrested, the TV show, and I’d seen him in a pilot years earlier, so I set out to get him. He was only 14 at the time. I Said, ‘Let’s get that kid. I think his name is Michael Cera. I think he lives in Canada.’ I’m waiting and waiting to hear back, and after about three weeks I hear, ‘Michael Cera responded to the script.’ And I felt like, ‘I didn’t realize that was a step,’ you know? But it gave me big respect for him, because it was like, you’re not just some whore. You want to read the script, you want to understand the character. This is a young boy! So he’s making smart decisions for himself… but I hope this will be one of them!”
The Internet waits with baited breath and pitchforks and Molotov cocktails nearby just in case they want to rip into bat-shit crazy hysteria at any less than perfect news.