When the New Yorker’s Twitter account announced that the cast of Arrested Development would be reuniting for 9 to 10 new episodes followed by a movie, I thought it was either the movie blogging equivalent of “MAN LANDS ON MOON” or the most epic troll job in New Yorker history†. After all the times they’ve already convinced us to kick the football, I’m still not sure I believe it, but all signs point to it being real. The short version is that they’re planning nine to ten “where are they now”-style episodes, with Showtime and Netflix negotiating to air them next fall, as a precursor to a film (which still doesn’t have studio backing, as of yet).

Here’s the long version, from Entertainment Weekly:

EW has confirmed that the producers of Arrested Development is in talks [sic] 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.

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 it a little bit. We’re trying to do kind of limited run series into the movie.”

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA

That’s totally his “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was a serial killer when I won the lottery” face.  Meanwhile, she’s pulling the old “Ugh, I’m so disgusted with you for not telling me you were a serial killer when I married you for your lottery money.”

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People send me links to Arrested Development Movie? stories all the time and I usually don’t post them, because most of the time, it’s just MTV doing 5 posts a day with that headline accompanying a “story” about how they yelled “Hey, Bill, would you do an Arrested Development movie?” at someone from the cast, who responded by shrugging.

Regardless, Arrested Development actually is as good as everyone says it is, and a movie would be pretty sweet.  And now, if Jeffrey Tambor is to be believed, it’s actually going to happen. Asked if he’s sick of people asking about it, Tambor said:

“Well no, because we’re doing it.  We are going. It’s a go. I actually just this week talked to Mitch Hurwitz, so we’re doing it.”

“When the writer calls you, and the director, and the executive producer calls you, it’s a pretty good sign.”

Sounds good to me.  On a related note, anyone else find the little freckly girl strangely attractive?  Anyone?  Anyway, if you’ll excuse me, I’m legally required to introduce myself to the new neighbors now.

[Thanks to WWBD for the tip]

Dimension films is making Superhero, a comic-book parody that would seem like a horribly ill-advised remake of Mystery Men if it didn't star Leslie Nielsen, Jeffrey Tambor, and Chris "Shooter McGavin" McDonald.  

The film will be directed by the guy who wrote Scary Movie 3 and 4 (enthusiasm fading…), and produced by David Zucker (Airplane!) and Robert K. Weiss (The Naked Gun sequels) – enthusiasm leveling off…

If this isn't any good I'll be very sad.  Leslie Nielsen is pretty much my hero.  Heck, I'd name my first born Leslie if it weren't such a fruit name.  -[via Hollywood Reporter]

UPDATE: Apparently, it's also got commander Data from Star Trek. I always thought he deserved more work.