Matt Damon was ready to step into the role of Michael Bluth in an Arrested Development movie, per Jason Bateman.
The Emmy-winning actor-producer-director made a recent appearance on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, where he revealed that Damon once pitched himself for a cameo in a potential film adaptation of the hit sitcom.
“I remember Matt Damon coming up to me at — I think it was like a Golden Globes or something — and I was so excited to meet him and, and he was a huge fan of Arrested Development,” Bateman recalled of the interaction. “And he was saying, ‘You know, I really think I could play, because I hear you guys are doing the movie, I think I could… can I play you?’”
Arrested Development, created by Mitchell Hurwitz, centers on level-headed son Michael Bluth who takes over family affairs after his father is imprisoned. However, the rest of his spoiled, dysfunctional family makes his job unbearable. The series ran from 2003 to 2006 before Netflix revived it for two additional seasons from 2013 to 2019. An idea of a movie was also tossed around at one point.
When host Conan O’Brien questioned why Damon would play Bateman’s character, the Ozark actor said that Hurwitz “was thinking the story of the Arrested Development movie would be that in the show, Hollywood wanted to make a movie about [the Bluth family], and we certainly couldn’t play ourselves, because we’re not actors.”
He added that his version of Michael Bluth would be “on set, watching Matt Damon play Michael Bluth and be so excited.” However, Bateman quipped that “David Cross would play Tobias in the film as well, because he was an actor” in the series.
O’Brien later asked if there was actually a possibility of an Arrested Development film in the future, to which Bateman admitted, “I don’t think anybody gives a shit. I think it’s done.”
The series also starred Michael Cera, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett, Alia Shawkat, Tony Hale, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter and Henry Winkler, with Ron Howard narrating.
