It appears as if the Bluth family isn’t very happy.
Even though season 5 of “Arrested Development” is waiting in the wings, all the news surrounding the series seems to revolve around the controversial fourth season. Originally airing as 15 episodes, structured completely different than the previous 3 seasons, the fourth season of “Arrested Development” wasn’t the breakout hit that Netflix and creator Mitch Hurwitz expected. Fans were put off by the new structure of the series and were let down by the lackluster story.
To combat this criticism, recently Hurwitz took the extra-long 15 episodes and recut them into a new “remix” of 22 shorter, more familiar episodes. While the quality is still up for debate, many praised the move as at least an admittance of season 4 not working as planned. However, while fans are a little happier, and Hurwitz preps the release of the upcoming season 5 at the end of the month, the cast of “Arrested Development” isn’t pleased with what transpired with season 4.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the cast of “Arrested Development” is demanding higher compensation for season 4 due to the new episode count, and different structure of the storyline. THR says that each actor was paid $100,000 for their own stand-alone episodes, $50,000 for episodes where they shared screen time, and $25,000 for episodes where they barely appeared. However, with the remixed episodes having all the characters appear is almost equal time, plus the addition of 7 extra episodes, that changes the way that each actor should have been compensated.
Of course, the studio doesn’t agree, with Fox saying they’re allowed to do anything they want to the footage once it’s been shot. And since they didn’t ask for reshoots, then there’s no extra work done by the actors. The cast believes the negotiated contracts didn’t cover this new “remix” and they’re concerned that Hurwitz and Fox stand to make more money with possible syndication and any more money that comes their way thanks to this “remix.”
Obviously, no one is commenting on this reported dispute yet. However, with the new season premiering at the end of the month, it’ll be interesting to see if the cast mentions the “remix” season during their press tours.
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Part of me questions how “real” this news is — within a cast of 10 stars, it’s a little weird that this article just refers to them as “the cast”, I mean, surely one or two of them would have a different opinion than the blatantly goofy greed displayed here, right? How often are all 10 actors 100% on board with anything?
That said…if it IS real….then they’re idiots, and going to squash any chances of more episodes after Season 5. Those (huge) wages they were paid were for the FILMING of those episodes. Are they also disappointed they didn’t get $4000 for every trailer or commercial they appeared in? Of course not, because how the footage is edited later doesn’t change how they were paid to show up on set and film those episodes on those shooting days.
Pure silliness. But, again, I have doubts about this being a real thing at all.