Exclusive

Ron Howard: Arrested Development Team Is "Fired Up" About Movie!

Plus, why you fans are to credit for it happening at all!

By Kristin Dos Santos, James Chairman Nov 17, 2011 2:30 PMTags
Ron Howard, Jason BatemanJeff Vespa/VF11/WireImage

Grab a pair of your favorite "never-nude" short shorts and get ready to blue yourself!

According to Ron Howard, who just met up with Jason Bateman, the Arrested Development team is "fired up" about making the fourth season and movie happen.

So what is the status? And why do you fans need to keep making noise?

'Cause the whole reason they're even thinking about an Arrested movie is because of you.

"It sounds a little bit corny," Howard told us, "but a lot of the reason the [cast and producers] want to do [the Arrested Development movie] is that they really feel like they want to respect what the fans are saying.

"Really, the fans have kept it going," Howard added, "not only in terms of executives realizing there's a real yearning for more Arrested Development, but also to just keep encouraging the creative team and keep making it pressing."

Press on! Press on!

The good news? A movie and truncated fourth season (nine or ten episodes) are still most definitely in the works, even though there is no network commitment yet for the new episodes. The buzz among industry insiders is that Showtime, Hulu and Netflix are all interested.

So where do things stand now? Things are...moving.

"I just had dinner with Jason Bateman in LA," Howard told us at an NYC event celebrating he and daughter Bryce Dallas Howard's short film collaboration Project Imagin8tion. "The [Arrested Development] creative team is completely fired up about it and sort of tidying up the business side."

Bottom line: If you want the A.D. movie to happen, and soon, we gotta keep writing stories like this, and you fans better never, ever shut up about it. Twitter, Facebook, a soup-can-and-string telephone and our comments section are yours for the taking. Slap on your short jean shorts and occupy!