Turning a TV show into a movie: 'Arrested Development' and '24'

By Sarah Sluis

At a time when movies are dealing with waning returns from the home entertainment side of the business, television shows have experienced the opposite. Thanks to Netflix, DVD sets, Hulu, iTunes, Amazon Prime, and DVRs, more people are interested in seeing series on their own time, not at 8pm on a Tuesday. They've also helped unlikely shows become hits. I never saw "Arrested Development" on television. I couldn't even tell you what time it aired. Like millions of other viewers, I discovered the show after the fact thanks to word-of-mouth. I gobbled up multiple episodes at a time, and was sad that the show was cancelled after just three seasons. The cult success of "Arrested Development" didn't keep it on the air, but it will result in a movie. It's not the only successful television show to be rewarded with a big-screen treatment. "24," which left the air last year, is also being developed as a feature.

What's interesting about "Arrested Development" is that the series will go back on the air for a mini-season that will allow viewers to catch up with the characters (and add some publicity). Then, there will be a movie that finishes up the characters' trajectories. I think the show will have no problem attracting high Nielsen ratings on television, since viewers like me will actually watch the show live and boost the ratings beyond what the show received when it was on the air from 2003-2006. Plus, many of the stars have risen in popularity since the show ended, including Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, and Alia Shawkat (upcoming Damsels in Distress), and Jeffrey Tambor, who had a supporting role in The Hangover Part II. That kind of star power may be able to overcome the problem of getting television viewers into the theatre (as seen in the dismal returns for the last X-Files movie).

"24," which just went off the air last year, also has plans for a movie. Recently, star Kiefer Sutherland announced that the script had gone through a number of rewrites before the writers were able to find the right formula."You have to remember that we have 24 hours to explain the stories in '24' and so trying to condense that into a two-hour film version has been a real shift in gear for us," Sutherland said in an interview with The Telegraph while promoting Lars von Trier's Melancholia. His role in that movie has received positive feedback from critics and could pave a way for his career post-"24." As for the film itself? Earlier this year, Imagine Entertainment had planned to shoot by the end of 2011 for a summer 2012 release. If the script is done, the movie may be on track to meet that deadline.

Both "24" and "Arrested Development" were successful television shows, but one was a ratings winner and the other a cult, after-the-fact hit. Which one will produce the more successful movie?