A Bluth model home?

After announcing a few weeks ago that Arrested Development was planning to return with new episodes, along with a feature film, news came out the other day that those new episodes will be shown exclusively on Netflix. With all the details, here's an article from comingsoon.net:

In a landmark deal, all new episodes of the Emmy Award-winning comedy series "Arrested Development" will be coming exclusively to Netflix for its U.S. members to watch instantly, beginning in 2013.

For the first time in their histories, Twentieth Century Fox Television and Imagine Television will produce original first-run entertainment content for the world's leading internet subscription service, bringing back the acclaimed series to production on all new episodes five years after its cancellation.

One of Time Magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME," the tale of the formerly wealthy, deeply eccentric Bluth clan aired for three seasons, 2003-2006, on Fox and was honored with the Emmy award for Outstanding Comedy Series after its first season on the air.

"Arrested Development is one of the finest American comedies in TV history and its return through Netflix is a perfect example of how we are working closely with studios and networks to provide consumers with entertainment they love," said Ted Sarandos, Netflix Chief Content Officer.

"It's also a perfect example of how broad and successful our relationship has become with Fox as we work together with their film, television, international and digital divisions on several exciting initiatives," he added.

"Netflix's bold entrance into original programming presents an exciting new opportunity for our two companies" commented Peter Levinsohn, Fox Filmed Entertainment's President of New Media & Digital Distribution. "Bringing a classic show back to production on new episodes exclusively for Netflix customers is a game changer, and illustrates the incredible potential the new digital landscape affords great content providers like Twentieth Century Fox Television and Imagine."

Commented 20th Century Fox TV Chairmen Dana Walden and Gary Newman, "We build brands at this studio which are so distinctive that audiences still clamor for them years after they go off the air. 'Arrested Development' is a great example of that it has stood the test of time. This innovative deal with Netflix represents a new business model that is extremely exciting and opens the door for a wide range of new collaborations."

"We also pride ourselves on breaking the rules at this studio, and after bringing back two canceled series 'Family Guy' and 'Futurama' to enormous success, we are bullish on the prospects for this brilliant series. We can't wait to get back to work with Mitch, Ron and Brian on bringing the Bluths back to America's living rooms," they added.

Said Imagine Entertainment co-founders Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, "Of all the projects we've been involved with over the years, we probably get more questions about Mitch Hurtwitz's brilliant 'Arrested Development' than any other everyone, ourselves included, seems to feel like the Bluths left the party a bit too soon. Bringing a series back from cancellation almost never happens, but then, 'Arrested' always was about as unconventional as they get, so it seems totally appropriate that this show that broke the mold is smashing it to pieces once again."

Added Howard, "After a long hiatus, I'm dying to finally get back to the narrator's microphone...'It's Arrested...Development.'"

The Emmy-winning comedy had its final broadcast on February 10, 2006 and concerned Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) and his eccentric family comprised of his son George Michael (Michael Cera), his father George Bluth Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor), his mother Lucille (Jessica Walter), his brothers George Oscar Bluth II (Will Arnett), Buster Bluth (Tony Hale) and sister Lindsay Funke (Portia de Rossi), and Lindsay's husband Tobias (David Cross) and their daughter Maeby (Alia Shawkat).

"Arrested Development" is a production of Imagine Television and 20th Century Fox Television. Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Mitch Hurwitz are executive producers.

Promising Development

This is the best possible birthday present I could get. Not only are we going to get an Arrested Development movie, but we're also getting the Bluths back on TV for a limited run as well!! Here's all the details from EW.com...

Arrested Development may get another lease on life on the small screen: EW has confirmed that the producers of Arrested Development – the critically-acclaimed but short-lived comedy from Mitchell Hurwitz — is in talks with Showtime and Netflix about airing a limited number of original episodes that will update fans on the Bluth clan.

Hurwitz told attendees at the New Yorker Festival Sunday in New York that he wanted to shoot nine to 10 episodes that would air next fall and catch audiences up on the characters’ lives since the series ended in 2006 on Fox. The episodes would be produced by 20th Century Fox TV, which was responsible for the original single camera series that starred Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, and Portia DeRossi.

Hurwitz’ hope is that the limited series would serve as a walk-up to his long-gestating movie. “I have been working on the screenplay for a long time and found that as time went by there was so much more to the story,” he said at the festival, which was also attended by Development stars Bateman, De Rossi, and Cera, as well as David Cross, Will Arnett, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter, Tony Hale, and Alia Shawkat. Ron Howard, one of the comedy’s producers, even participated via speakerphone. “In fact, where everyone’s been for five years became a big part of the story. So, in working on the screenplay I found that even if I just gave five minutes per character to that backstory, we were halfway through the movie before the characters got together. And that kinda gave birth to this thing we’ve not been pursuing for a while and we’re kinda going public with a little bit. We’re trying to do kind of limited run series into the movie.”

Hurwitz then unveiled his very unconventional plan. “We’re basically hoping to do nine or 10 episodes with almost one character per episode, where like the first episode will just be Buster. We’re kinda picturing it like, um, well the latest joke we have is that, you know, it’s Cambridge, Massachusetts and there’s all these scientists in lab coats and they’re waiting for somebody and Buster comes through the door wearing a lab quote and says `let’s begin,’ and they say, `you don’t get to wear the lab coat, we’re experimenting on you. [garbled] And then we go through his life and we meet the people in his life and maybe he goes to see his therapist who he’s getting a good rate on because it’s Tobias and he’s lost his license. We can do cross overs and things like that. But it’s an unusual style of show I think and we get him to a certain point of peril in his life and then maybe we jump over to like Maeby and she’s living with Cornel West … We’ll do this kind of thing that builds the peril in their lives until they all come together, really, in the first scene of the movie. It requires, and Ron [Howard] has been working on this too, it just requires studios to work together, they don’t normal work together in film and TV. It’s a really ambitious project but it’s also a very simple project in a way because it kind of gives the fans a level of detail for `granularity,’ which is a big word on the East Coast.

“I really have to say, we’ve talked about this, we’re all game, we hated be coy, we’ve been trying to put together this more ambitious idea and I think we’re very close, the script is halfway done and we have to get the film companies on board,” Hurwitz continued. “They’ve always been great to us but you know times are tough and money is tight but I’m very hopeful , there is business left to be done but creatively we have a very specific plan of how it would come out and what we would do and when we would shoot it. Our hope is that, perhaps the series is in the fall.”

Granted, this isn’t the first time that Showtime has emerged as some kind of savior for Arrested Development. Back in 2006, the pay cabler was considering whether to rescue the canceled show but obviously no deal was reached. But this latest development on Development is a horse of a different color — and one that the actors seem to have embraced. The stars in attendance at today’s festival acknowledged that they were keeping their schedules free to make such a series .