'Arrested Development' announces new show, movie

[October 03, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The Bluth family's frozen banana stand may be back in business.

At an "Arrested Development" reunion Sunday at the New York Festival, the creators and cast announced plans for a new TV show that spins off the short-lived but critically acclaimed TV show, which went off the air in 2006 after just three seasons. They also discussed more concrete plans for a much-awaited movie.

Creator Mitchell Hurwitz said the spinoff will feature nine or 10 episodes focusing on each character and leading up to the movie. The first scene of the movie will be all the characters reunited.

The Fox show, which suffered low ratings despite its rabid fan base, starred Jason Bateman, Michael Cera and Portia de Rossi. They played members of a dysfunctional family who ran a collapsing real estate development company and frozen banana stand.

Shooting for the TV show is tentatively set to begin next summer.

The movie doesn't have a release date, Hurwitz said, adding that the creative aspects have been largely worked out, but the business side is still being negotiated.

"We're all game," he said. "We've hated being coy, but we've been trying to put together this ambitious idea."

[Associated Press; By EMILY FREDRIX]

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