The official movie poster for “The Longest Week” is now revealed!

I’ve added a bunch of movie stills from Jason’s movie “The Longest Week”. Check them out in the gallery right here!

Visual proof that new “Arrested Development” is being written

It’s official. It’s happening. New “Arrested Development” is being written.

Of course, we’ve had proof of this over and over and over again. But forgive us for our skepticism. This project has been kind of sort of in development ever since “Arrested Development” went off the air in 2006, and leading man Jason Bateman has been promising us a movie ever since he started doing press for “Juno” the year after. Needless to say, it didn’t happen quite like he planned.

But now Netflix has officially picked up the show and creator Mitch Hurwitz has said he’s busy writing a new season that will premiere all at once at some point next year. And thanks to the folks over at Vulture, we have some definitive proof that Hurwitz is actually working on the series.

The above photo was taken at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 7, above a sound stage on a studio lot in Culver City where the “Arrested Development” team has set up camp working on the show. When Vulture reached out to Hurwitz for comment, he confirmed that the image shows him working on new episodes.

“I was working in the room with the writing staff. We were discussing the Maeby episode,” he wrote.

It sounds like maybe Hurwitz hasn’t ditched the idea to have each episode center on an individual character to catch us up on their last few years. Does this mean the plan to have the new season lead up to a feature film is still underway? We’ll have to wait and see.

Now please excuse us, we have some chicken dancing to do.

Credit: IFC

DumbDumb has a new episode out of Always Open with Dave Koechner featuring Maya Rudolph. View it right here!

IT may not be a bad idea to begin this article the way a comedian might: A funny thing happened to TBS on the way to the upfront.

TBS, the cable channel that bills itself as the home of “very funny” programming, is teaming with the actors Will Arnett and Jason Bateman and DumbDumb, their company that creates humorous Web video clips for brands like Denny’s, Old Navy and Orbit gum.

DumbDumb and TBS will offer marketers a chance to run sponsored comedy videos on the TBS Web site, tbs.com. The marketers will also be able to run the videos in digital domains like their own Web sites, Facebook fan pages and YouTube channels.

Initially, DumbDumb will produce up to six comedic digital shorts, each from three to five minutes long. The sponsored videos will be promoted on TBS during shows like “Conan,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “Family Guy,” as viewers are invited to watch them online.

The videos will also appear on Web sites that are siblings of tbs.com, among them teamcoco.com, the home of the TBS talk show “Conan” with the comedian Conan O’Brien.

The agreement between TBS and DumbDumb is to be announced on Friday, five days before the presentation to be made by TBS in New York that will provide marketers a look at its schedule for the coming season — hence the term “upfront.”

The deal is the first between DumbDumb, which Mr. Arnett and Mr. Bateman founded in 2010, and a media company. And not just any media company: TBS is part of the Turner Broadcasting System unit of Time Warner, which is the world’s third-largest media company, behind Walt Disney and News Corporation.

DumbDumb, though small, has well-known media backers, too. It was formed in partnership with Electus, a multimedia entertainment studio started by the former television executive Ben Silverman. Electus is a division of IAC/InterActiveCorp, led by Barry Diller.

The videos to be created for tbs.com by DumbDumb will, like the videos created for marketers, feature the comedians who perform under the DumbDumb banner.

In addition to Mr. Arnett and Mr. Bateman, who also worked together in the Fox sitcom “Arrested Development,” those performers have included Will Forte, Dave Koechner, Amy Poehler, Andy Richter and Sarah Silverman.

Also, the videos will be in the vein of what is known as branded content or branded entertainment.

In other words, products and brands are woven into the plots so the storytelling is not interrupted by conventional commercials.

Such sponsored stories are becoming increasingly popular as marketers wrestle with the growing ability of consumers to avoid ads.

“We’re helping our advertisers connect with their audiences, and it’s all about making that right connection,” said Donna Speciale, president for Turner entertainment and young adult ad sales, whose bailiwicks, in addition to TBS, include TNT, truTV, Cartoon Network and the Cartoon Network late-night program block called Adult Swim.

The videos to be created by DumbDumb are destined for tbs.com rather than TBS, Ms. Speciale said, because “we wanted to create more of a digital conversation,” reflecting how content that runs online is easily shared by consumers through social media like Facebook and Twitter.

Ms. Speciale traced the origins of the agreement to a night when Steven R. Koonin, president for the Turner Entertainment Networks unit of Turner Broadcasting System, watched an episode of “Conan” during which Mr. Bateman discussed DumbDumb.

TBS and Electus regularly have discussions — for instance, in March TBS ordered a reality competition series, “King of the Nerds,” from Electus — and a meeting was scheduled to talk about a deal with DumbDumb.

DumbDumb specializes in “content marketing,” said Laura Caraccioli-Davis, executive vice president for advertising solutions and marketing at Electus, part of the trend of “brand as publisher, brands trying to produce strong, relevant content” for consumers.

DumbDumb is “creating content that’s bespoke to a brand, and highly shareable,” she added. “Names like Jason Bateman and Will Arnett have huge social followings.” Mr. Bateman has more than 532,000 followers on Twitter.

Mr. Arnett described DumbDumb as “a content company,” adding: “We’re not an advertising agency. We’re not a studio.” He listed an Activision game, Call of Duty, and BlackBerry as among other brands for which DumbDumb has worked.

As for how willingly consumers accept branded content, “everything since the dawn of television has been sponsor-driven,” Mr. Arnett said, noting that in the early days of the medium the sponsors owned the shows.

“Then they started splitting the candy from the medicine and having commercial breaks,” he added, referring to the shift the networks began in the 1960s as sponsored shows gave way to the current model of shows interrupted by spots from multiple marketers.

Asked what prompted him and Mr. Bateman to start DumbDumb, Mr. Arnett replied: “We’re in it for the pageantry. I’m in it for the props and the fake mustaches.”

More seriously, Mr. Arnett said the agreement with TBS was not something they were “actively seeking out.”

Rather, “we kind of came together because we’re all looking for the same thing,” he added, in terms of a desire to “work with advertisers and address their needs.”

“It was a happy accident,” Mr. Arnett said, adding deadpan, “If it’s a disaster, it’ll be their fault.”

Credit: NY Times

Want to watch Jason Bateman and Melissa McCarthy film the movie “ID Theft” up close?

A charity auction site is offering a set visit. The bidding now stands at $2,000.

The movie, also starring Amanda Peet, concerns a guy who has his identity stolen by a woman. It has filmed at Perimeter Mall, Midtown, the 191 Building downtown and the Bank of America Plaza downtown (also a site for “The Change-Up,” the 2011 buddy comedy Bateman and Ryan Reynolds filmed here).

The auction fine print notes the following:

“The visit will take place on a single day — date to be determined by the producers and subject to change — between April 23 and July 3, 2012, in the greater Atlanta, Georgia area. Travel arrangements and accommodations are NOT included in the auction and will be the responsibility of the winning bidder. Ground transport, as determined by the producers, directly to and from the set within the greater Atlanta area will be provided. Please be aware that strict rules govern the production. Decisions exercised by the producers, directors and their designates, are final. Cannot be resold or re-auctioned.”

What that probably means is don’t show up with an entourage, don’t think you’re going to spend the day hanging with the stars and don’t plan on snapping a bunch of photos during the filming. They might pose for a photo with you in between takes, but your people and their people need to work it out after you pay up.

The auction benefits The RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights.

Here is the link. Happy bidding!