by Chris Petersen

Over the past several years, since 1 A.D. (not Anno Domini, but years marked by the birth of Arrested Development), there have been constant rumors about a possible Arrested Development Movie. I have been skeptical for a while about it, because, like a failed flame spurt from GOB’s trick sleeve, the rumors have talked a big game without delivering anything that they promised.

Now, with some recent comments from Ron Howard, there might be hope that the project may be moving forward in the near future. You might ask, “Well, what makes this any different than all the other times people have promised it to be moving forward? Will we jump on board, get all our camping gear, only to be left waiting on the door step, like the Bluths always do to their sons?”

Like you, I am hesitant to be a hop on to the stair car that is the rumor mill, but the recent statements from Ron Howard are a little more reassuring than before. Let me just share with you what he said during a recent interviews on his press junket for his upcoming film, The Dilemma, that had to do with with show’s creator, Mitch Hurwitz‘s, schedule.

“[Mitch Hurwitz’s] television company was very successful — good for Mitch — and slowed things up a little bit for ‘Arrested Development’ fans,” Howard said. “What happened is that he became such an important television superstar that he began developing a lot of pilots and he really wanted to follow through with that…So he put in a couple years doing that — always letting the ‘Arrested Development’ movie percolate — and now he’s done that. I think this is really now front-and-center in his mind.”

Now that Hurwitz’s latest endeavor, Running Wilde, got cancelled, Howard assured MTV News that Hurwitz’s priority is the Arrested Development Movie. Additionally, Running Wilde starred Will Arnett, a central actor to Arrested, and that freed up his schedule as well.

I think that I am cynically optimistic (if that even makes sense) about the latest news. I do want to see this project come to light, but fans have been led along with a carrot on the end of a stick for so long that it would be really foolish to jump the gun yet again and hang on every word from Howard and Hurwitz.

Do you think Howard’s comments are reassuring? Or just the same old bunk we have been fed all along?