Brian Grazer says Arrested Development season 5 is definitely almost happening soon

By Sam Barsanti | January 12, 2017 | 2:14am

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Every six months or so, the people who make TV and the people who write about TV converge for the Television Critics Association press tour, and though a lot of news tends to come out of these events, the most important item on everyone’s agenda is getting the biannual update on the status of Arrested Development’s fifth season. Last January, we heard that the whole thing might revolve around a serialized murder mystery, and in July, we reported that series creator Mitch Hurwitz was hoping to begin filming “at the start of 2017.” There was even a brief moment when people thought Jeffrey Tambor had revealed that it would start filming in January, but he was just talking about Transparent.

Well, it’s January again and the TCAs are in full swing, so we’re due for another vague, possibly meaningless update on the status of Arrested Development. Almost as if on cue, executive producer Brian Grazer has stepped up to announce that they’re “close” to working out the necessary deals, and he thinks it’ll all happen “within a couple of weeks at the most.” That comes from Deadline, which says the issue—as always—is figuring out how to get everyone’s schedules to fit together. Grazer seems pretty confident that it’ll work out, but that doesn’t mean they’ll actually announce that a fifth season is happening within his “couple of weeks” timeframe. After all, they’ve gotta save some news for this summer’s TCA press tour.