Ah, the tacky magic of budgeted CGI...

A film version of the popular American sitcom Arrested Development film is happening, according to reports.

Rumours have been circulating since the beginning of the year, with some of the cast of the TV programme confirming the news and others, notably young cinema darling Michael Cera – ultimately the franchise’s biggest pull if it went to the big screen - denying any knowledge.

However, during a recent roundtable interview Jason Bateman, who plays the lead character Michael Bluth, let loose on some details about the forthcoming picture, and confirmed that it would, indeed, be going ahead. Though it remains to be seen who, if any, of the original cast will continue their roles.

The sitcom also stars Portia de Rossi and David Cross, with Ron Howard as the narrator.

“The script’s being written and when Mitch (Hurwitz) is done with it we can go to the scheduling part of it which will probably prove to be a bit challenging given the size of the cast.

And they’re all [original cast] attached?

Jason: He is asked us not to speak about specifics, but that he’s working on it.

It seems like 5 or 6 months there was a lot of momentum. A lot of people talking about the film. And then it seemed like it sort of got a little bit quiet. Everyone’s a little nervous it’s actually happening. Is it, in fact, actually being written right now?

Jason: Yes.

That’s 100%?

Jason: Yeah. Yeah. That’s never changed. I mean people have guessed and “rumouredâ€� and all that other stuff in all areas of the media. I’ve always been a little sort of…I’ve always felt bad that I never had more information to give people when they asked me about it, but I guess people kind of got frustrated by that and they just started kind of making up their own sort of “well, we haven’t heard that muchâ€� or “news hasn’t changed so it must be going awayâ€�. I don’t know. It sort of took a life of its own on and fatigue started to set in I think about the whole story of it. I mean, there’s really no need to write anything about it at all until he’s done writing it. Once he writes it then, just like any movie, then it becomes something a little bit more real and then you try to figure out scheduling and you try to figure out people’s deals. I mean, it’s got the same life that any other project would have. It has just as much a chance of happening as it does of not happening really.”

Sounds exciting, let’s hope it’s for real this time!

And just incase you haven’t yet seen the brilliant cable show, see what the fuss is about with the below clip:

Arrested Development – ‘Chicken Dance’