October 3, 2011 13:49

'Arrested Development' to return for new season and film

'9 or 10' episodes to feature in new season

The creator of 'Arrested Development' has revealed that the show is to get a new series as well as a feature length film.

Speaking at a cast reunion in New York, Mitchell Hurwitz said the new series would feature nine or 10 episodes focusing on each character leading up to the movie, reports the BBC.

The show was originally broadcast on US network Fox between 2003-06 and starred Jason Bateman and Michael Cera.

Writing on his Twitter Bateman wrote: "We will do 10 episodes and the movie. Probably shoot them all together next summer for a release in early '13. VERY excited!"

Creator Hurwitz said that the idea came out of the realisation while working on the film script that the five-year hiatus since the TV show ended meant the characters had so much backstory. "We were halfway through the movie before the characters came together," he said.

Bateman said: "There's business left to be done, but creatively we are all on board and have a very specific plan about how it would come out and what we would do and when we would shoot it. I think we're targeting next summer to shoot it."

Despite being critically acclaimed and winning six Emmy awards and one Golden Globe, the show was dropped after three seasons because of low ratings.

The show revolved around members of a dysfunctional family who ran a collapsing real estate development company and frozen banana stand.