Mitchell Hurwitz doesn't want to get your hopes up, but expects to have Arrested Development movie out this year

If creator Mitchell Hurtwitz gets his way—and that’s obviously not a guarantee—the Arrested Development movie will be filmed and released within the year, an ambitious, Herculean battle plan befitting the project’s recent foray into the realm of myth and legend. But at least Hurwitz seems to recognize that every new unfulfilled promise has only turned formerly warm fans cold and jaded, telling Digital Spy, “They've been so supportive and we're so grateful, so I kind of hate to answer the question until I can say, 'Yep, we've shot it, it opens next week'. Otherwise it feels like we're toying with people and we do not mean to do that. It has just taken a while to get it going.”

The possible good news that is also bound to toy with people is that Hurwitz says he’s definitely begun the process of writing the script with Jim Valley. The inevitable “but…” is that “a lot of things have to fall into place” in order for him to reach his stated goal of having it in theaters by the end of 2011. Things like getting the entire cast to agree to star in it, working out their conflicting schedules, slaying the Gogmagog and placing his severed head atop the highest peak—things of that nature.