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Arrested Development


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back in 2013!! ...on Netflix

 

That sound you’re hearing is customers coming back to Netflix for one of the best comedies of all time. The online streaming and rental company has closed a deal to exclusively air new episodes of Arrested Developement in as early as 2013. These are most likely the episodes series creator Mitch Hurwitz mentioned last month as a lead in to a long-rumored feature film. There’s more after the jump.

 

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from Variety:

 

Netflix is licensing new episodes of the TV series "Arrested Development" from 20th Century Fox Television and Imagine Television.

 

 

The sides struck a deal with the streaming service that will launch new episodes of the Emmy-winning comedy in early 2013, the studio confirmed.

 

The prospect of "Development" returning in both TV and film forms was raised last month when the show's creator, Mitch Hurwitz, announced in an appearance at the New Yorker Festival that he was intent on reuniting the series' original actors, including Jason Bateman and Will Arnett, for another go-round.

 

"Arrested" had a critically acclaimed run on Fox from 2003-2006, but the network canceled the series given its ratings were always modest at best.

 

All of the series regulars have expressed interest in returning and are expected back, though no deals have been done. How that will work will be interesting given many of them are maintaing busy careers. "Arrested" player Arnett is currently on the NBC series "Up All Night" and another alum, Portia de Rossi, is attached to a high-profile project in development at the Peacock.

 

Where this leaves the proposed "Arrested" feature film isn't clear. While one source familiar with the project said it is currently in development at Fox Searchlight, another source at the studio denied it was an active project. Hurwitz's vision of the film was to schedule it after the series run in order to drive interest at the box office, but at the very least it seems that the film and TV aren't attached to each other.

 

Hurwitz was executive producer of "Arrested" with Imagine principals Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. The producing pair issued a statement: "Bringing a series back from cancellation almost never happens, but then, 'Arrested' always was about as unconventional as they get, so it seems totally appropriate that this show that broke the mold is smashing it to pieces once again."

 

That Netflix has emerged the winner of a bidding war that reportedly included pay-TV player Showtime will be seen as a real coup for the service, which already gave Hollywood notice in March that it was in the original programming business in a big way when it ordered a 22-episode adaptation of the BBC drama "House of Cards" set to premiere next year. Analysts estimated "Cards," which comes with Kevin Spacey attached to star and David Fincher to executive produce, cost Netflix $100 million to get the rights from Media Rights Capital.

 

Financial terms of the "Arrested" deal are not known but could be substantial given the caliber of talent involved.

 

While Netflix's market capitalization was sent reeling in recent months after ill-advised decisions regarding its pricing, the need for original programming is all the greater as content companies have held the line at giving the service TV shows that are in-season.

 

Since Netflix started licensing original series, the service has been seen as a potential savior for ill-fated productions that get shuttered over the objections of a cult following too narrow to sustain them. But rescuing a show that comes with a built-in audience--albeit one too small to survive on TV--may be a safer strategy than creating a new property out of whole cloth.

 

The hedge on "Cards" is that its narrative has already gotten a test run in the U.K. but with different talent on both sides of the camera.

 

Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix said of the deal, "'Arrested Development is one of the finest American comedies in TV history and its return through Netflix is a perfect example of how we are working closely with studios and networks to provide consumers with entertainment they love,'" said Ted Sarandos, Netflix Chief Content Officer.

 

The return of "Development" would be a stunner given it is rare that a series comes back after a protracted absence, though 20th and Fox have seen precedent here: Animated series "Family Guy" was canceled in 2001 only to be revived three years later after the series fared well on DVD and in syndication.

 

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I got yer back Jax

 

 

At the ongoing National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurtwitz and Netflix chief Ted Sarandos confirmed what we already knew: Season four will premiere exclusively on Netflix Instant Viewing sometime next year. But they also announced something that had not yet been discussed: All 10 episodes of the season will be released simultaneously.

This has always been Netflix’s business model, but it is a bit different when the shows have already aired on traditional cable. Netflix’s first “original” series, Lilyhammer, appeared all at once, but they did not produce it. Instead, it originally aired on Norwegian TV and they bought the rights.

Rabid fans of Arrested Development, which has gained in popularity after going off the air and is reportedly headed towards a feature film, will undoubtedly digest all 10 episodes in one sitting (and then probably watch them a couple more times). I’ve certainly taken in entire seasons of great shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men over a single weekend, and I know how gratifying this experience can be. But with so much of a lead-up to Arrested Development‘s re-surfacing, one wonders if exhausting every episode of the new season at once will prove anticlimactic. There’s something to be said for anticipating a new episode of a series every week.

Creator Hurwitz also said that, while he had initially planned to change the structure of the show in the new season (intimately focusing on a character per episode), it’s shaping up to be just like it always has been.

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