“We’re gonna make the movie. Mitch Hurwitz is just starting to write it. It’ll be out in a year and a half.”—Jason Bateman

In show business, few things are guaranteed. Given ever-present uncertainties over financial backing, availability of actors, scheduling conflicts, accidents, and any and every other thing, claiming that something in show biz is dead set on happening is a great way to be proven wrong.

That quote from Jason Bateman is from 2009. There has been talk about an Arrested Development movie since the show was cancelled. The last line of dialogue in the show’s history more or less declared the producer’s wish to make one. And since then, a wide variety of people involved with the show have declared, with varying degrees of certainty, that a movie would happen soon, yet it has continuously failed to materialize.

At a New Yorker Festival panel a few weeks ago, the cast and creators reunited to announce that a reunion was in the works. Some fans might be hoping that because Mitch Hurwitz delivered the statement, this time, it would all be true. Of course, the creator of a show expressing his wishes, or even his certainty, that a movie will be made is no guarantee that it will be. Just ask fans of Deadwood or Veronica Mars. There have been no contracts signed, no pre-production started, no distribution method selected. In short, it’s pure speculation. Official speculation, but speculation nonetheless.

The only thing that distinguishes this most recent statement from previous ones is the possibility of a nine or 10 episode mini-series preceding the movie. Hurwitz speculated that each episode of the mini-series would focus on a single character and reveal what they had been up to in the years since the end of the series. Given that above all else, Arrested Development was a series that thrived on its ensemble cast, this seems like a bizarre proposal. While each character is undoubtedly hilarious in their own way, the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts, and giving each character their own episode does not sound promising. We’re not calling Friends the world’s greatest ensemble comedy (it’s not), but look at what happened when Joey went out on his own. It’s difficult to imagine Gob or Lucille being just as funny in a vacuum.

And what about the quality of the movie itself? It should come as a shock to no one that movie adaptations are often less than successful, largely because the plotting and pacing required for a story of 90 minutes is very different than for 22. That’s why for every South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut we get films like Reno 911: Miami and the Sex and the City movie. It would be painful to see an Arrested Development movie of such poor caliber. At the very least, it is reassuring that regardless of the quality of a prospective film, it can’t retroactively affect the greatness of its original run.

Part of us wonders why Hurwitz and co. couldn’t just leave it alone. Arrested Development has already cemented its legacy as an under-appreciated gem, and its three seasons have been cast in bronze. Yes, it was cancelled, and perhaps too soon, but the 53 episodes that were produced evidence a longer life-span than many shows, and plenty enough to give a sense of closure. Don’t get us wrong, we’d love to see the Bluths return to the screen, big, small, or both. Just don’t hold your breath.