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Media Maven Inside Scoop: Arrested Development Movie Plot Revealed! 
Thu, Aug 7
I can't tell you what a pleasure it is to be writing this post. For those of you who haven't heard, everyone's favorite family of crazies is headed for the big screen -- after receiving a commitment from every member of the Bluth family, Arrested Development creator Mitchell Hurwitz has begun work on a script for the silver screen adaptation of the best comedy series of all time.
There's been a lot of speculation as to what Hurwitz might have up his sleeve for the film, but after speaking to a reliable source close to the production, I can be among the first to report what the film's general thrust will be. I've been sitting on this info since mid-May, as I didn't want to blow the lid on this oh-so-secret scoop before the time was right, but I can't wait anymore!
The main plot of the picture is going to be the old "movie within a movie" device-- as suggested by Ron Howard in the show's finale, the story of the Bluth family sounds like a good movie...and so it is! As we rejoin the Bluths, we find them as consultants on a movie about their lives. The main action of the A.D. movie will be our Bluths interacting with the actors playing them in the Bluth movie. So for example, Jason Bateman, as Michael Bluth, will be interacting with Mr. Z (its way too early for anyone other than the series regulars to be mentioned as cast), an actor (in real life) playing an actor who is playing Michael Bluth in the Bluth movie. Everybody got it?
I think this premise is perfect, though it likely will be tweaked and changed a bit before we see or hear anything more about the film. Movies based on television series need to take on something bigger than they ever could on the series itself; it can't just be a 2 hour episode on a larger screen. Look at the most recent examples of tv shows-turned-films: Sex and the City, X-Files 2, and The Simpsons Movie. The trouble with both SATC and X-Files was that they did not take the series to new heights. Yes, they amped up the plot a bit with big narrative moments like Carrie's wedding, but there was no character development, nothing the film did that the show could not have done with an extended episode. The Simpsons Movie, on the other hand, pushed things to a new level-- Marge's "I'm Leaving You" tape for Homer was perhaps the most emotionally honest moment in the history of the series. So while we still got all the cinema-worthy big plot points and all the characters we love, we also saw the main characters pushed to new emotional places, which is really what makes the movie worth watching.
Not only will the Bluth movie setup allow for obvious hilarity on thousands of levels, as we've grown accustomed to already, but hopefully, confronting their own life story head on will take our Bluths to new emotional places and force them to reckon with their loveably ludicrous ways.
My gut is telling me this movie is going to be life-alteringly fantastic...but my gut is also very hungry. I can’t tell you what a pleasure it is to be writing this post. For those of you who haven
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