Finally, Arrested Development Developing

OK, OK. I’m hoping this will be the last “maybe it will, maybe it won’t” article concerning the Arrested Development movie. Michael Cera has succumbed. He’s in. It’s happening.

Let me bring you up to speed. Arrested Development is a beloved television show that was prematurely canceled because that’s what happens to funny, original and slightly unhinged programming these days. Enter: the movie idea. It’s canceled television’s last hope (see: Firefly) this side of Family Guy. Now it helps that Ron Howard was involved with the show. The ingredients were always there. It’s almost like the show was begging to be canceled so they could make a movie fans would fight over for eons as to whether or not it worked or should have been made at all. Somewhere in a Burbank studio Ron Howard is sitting back in his reclining chair, rubbing his palms together and thinking, Yes, yes!

But there was a problem with this plan, a fly in the ointment. For months and months now Michael Cera has been telling anyone who would listen that he just didn’t see the point of making an Arrested Development movie. Whenever asked he would respond, “No, thanks.” The response, in turn, from fans like myself went something like this: WHAAAAAA! WHAAAAA! I HATE YOU MICHAEL CERA! WHAAAAAA! And so on.

So there’s been talk of this movie happening for a long time now. So much talk that I didn’t want to hear about it anymore. I love the show. I would have loved a movie because … why not? But truth be told I was getting a little tired of this story. I don’t know what finally convinced Cera to sign on the dotted line. Maybe Howard went Corleone and told him either his signature or his brains would be on the contract. Either way, congrats to creator Mitchell Hurwitz for getting his baby another shot at the title. Thankfully, our national crisis has ended.

And honestly, I’m not sure this movie would have missed much if Cera didn’t sign. As long as Tobias and Gob are on board, so am I. The rest of it would be two hours of me staring at the big screen, watching Portia de Rossi and wondering if I could be the guy who could make her switch teams. Because I mean, how couldn’t I be?

I hope they go the route of The Simpsons Movie and recall as many of the characters as possible. I want Michael to crash through a wall and find Annyong on some top-secret espionage action of which we never really get the whole story. I want to know what’s become of Steve Holt. Will the other Lucille and Buster live happily ever after? What of Bob Loblaw? The great Tony Wonder? Will Charlize Theron or Julia Louis-Dreyfus make appearances? Maybe this Arrested Development has a few more speculative stories left in the tank.

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Dre writes two times a week for Film.com. Email him!

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