The Arrested Development revival is filming very soon
Jason Bateman says he's "excited" to get cracking on the latest Netflix revival of the cult comedy
Withdraw your banana stand money, crack out that chicken dance and get ready to admit your huge mistakes – because the next series of Arrested Development is soon to get underway.
Speaking to RadioTimes.com, series star Jason Bateman (now appearing in another Netflix series, Ozark) revealed that shooting for the new series of the comedy was imminent, expressing his excitement at having the gang back together again.
“The scripts will probably start coming in the next week or two, because we’re shooting in three or four weeks,” Bateman told us earlier this month (suggesting that filming will begin in the next fortnight).
“I’m very excited to get back together with all those people,” he went on. “It’s a big part of my life and something that was really helpful to my career.”
The new series follows an earlier 2013 reboot on Netflix of the original 2003-2006 comedy, which first aired on US network FOX. Rumour has it that the story will focus on a murder mystery, and will see the fan-favourite cast (including Will Arnett, Portia de Rossi and Jeffrey Tambor among others) share a lot of screen time after mixed reactions to the 2013 series’ attempt at splitting them up for ease of shooting.
However, despite previously directing an episode of the critically-acclaimed comedy and now helming four whole episodes of Ozark, Batemen says he’ll be staying away from the director's chair this time around – because frankly, he’d rather just have some fun.
“As far as directing those episodes, it’s something I talked briefly about with the showrunner over there, and you know I said I just think it would be weird,” Bateman explained.
“Even though I did one early early on, the thing I was really looking forward to about the show was just to hang out with those actors, and having us all doing the same thing we were doing before – making each other laugh every day.
“If I was going to direct any of those I’d have to keep my head down and be adult, and it’s kind of fun to be an idiot on that set.”
Anyway, for now Bateman is focused on Ozark, a tale of a financial planner who is forced to launder money for drug cartels in a sleepy Missouri resort.
“I’m trying to play us, you and me, and what I’m going through is something that you’re happy you’re not going through – but it’s relatable enough that it’s unsettling, because that’s probably what it would look or feel like if it were you,” Bateman said of the new series.
“The crew and the cast do such a good job at keeping it very real, very understated, very subtle – so that it’s something that has kind of a raw experience for the audience,” he concluded.
Sounds pretty arresting itself.
Ozark is available to stream on Netflix now
