Well sort of. We have a month at least with
Netflix content chief Ted Sardandos confirming that all 14 episodes of the upcoming 4th season will drop simultaneously in May. And that’s not all that was revealed as show creator Mitch Hurwitz and the (these days) big name cast spoke at the 2013 Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in LA overnight. Here’s what we’ve learned.
While a collection of 14 episode that form a linear narrative is generally referred to as a season within the biz, this is not technically Arrested Developed Season 4.
Hurwitz: This is the first act of what we hope to continue in a movie, which
would be act 2 and act 3. These are episodes that set that up. It is
not Season 4 … There is certainly a satisfying conclusion to these
episodes, but they’re supposed to work as a hybrid package [that will be
continued].
It appears that Hurwitz has spent the interim 9 years since the last wrap watching Momento and reading choose your own adventure novels.
Hurwitz: It it’s a very different form that followed the function …
the family grew apart … the only way to get everyone together was to
kind of dedicate each episode to one character’s POV … We’d start
finding the characters’ stories intersecting. You’ll see a scene again
from another perspective and get all this new information. You could
watch a portion of Michael’s episode and click over to Lucille’s episode
… [I don’t know if this technology exists yet] but we did talk about
finding a way to jump from one story from another as a choose your own
adventure thing. [They serve as] one giant 700 minute “Arrested
Development.”
Michael Cera is a Hollywood big cheese in waiting.
Hurwitz: Michael is such a brilliant guy and such a great writer, and I
really did bring him in because he’s such an open guy and he wanted to
learn this other craft, and suddenly we were very dependent about
Michael Cera being in the writers’ room … he understood this complex
story and was pitching stories in character.
While fans have waited the better part of a decade for new episodes, their patience extends only so far.
Hurwitz: Arrested Development people like to watch this binge viewing
— you’ve got to follow the audience, you’ve got to stay fresh, you’ve
got to keep challenging yourself. (Best decision eveeerrrrr!)
They all love each other as much as we love them.
Hurwitz recalled Jeffery Tambor telling him, “Everywhere I look, it’s the funniest person I’ve ever seen.” (Amen.)
