Alia Shawkat Offers Proof to Movieline That the Arrested Development Script is a Go

Since we last chatted with Alia Shawkat -- where she was coming off workshopping a project at Sundance Labs (it's since been sidelined due to its writer/director Elgin James' FBI indictment on extortion charges; that's showbiz!) -- the young actress has been keeping extremely busy.

She has Whip It opening this week, in which she nails a juicy, scene-stealing role as Ellen Page's wisecracking best friend. Next up, audiences can catch her in another girl-powered production, playing the bad-ass bassist of The Runaways. We caught up with her today (pictured here with Whip It co-star Landon Pigg, dutifully feeding her some chocolate mousse), where we couldn't resist shaking her down for whatever shreds of information she had on the ever-elusive Arrested Development movie. And things are looking good!

Those are the very words Shawkat used in recounting a recent conversation with co-star Will Arnett -- an exchange that pointed towards the existence of an actual script:

"It looks good," she told Movieline. "I saw Will at Drew [Barrymore]'s house, actually, at a party, and I was like, 'Hey, man. How are you doing?' And he was like, 'I'm writing with [AD creator] Mitch [Hurwitz],' because they're doing a show together."

"And I was like, 'Oh, so is he not writing the movie?' And he was like, 'No, he's writing it. He and [AD co-E.P.] Jim Vallely are working on it.' [Will] was like, 'Keep February of next year open,' or something like that. And I was like, 'Um...OK. I will.' So it looks good. Better than it ever has, that's for sure."

So be not thrown by reports that Arnett and Hurwitz's still-untitled Fox pilot (about a loaded, Beverly Hills jackass who falls for an environmentalist who can't stand him) is somehow overtaking AD on Hurwitz's comedy to-do list. The Bluth Frozen Banana stand will rise again, phoenix-like, from the chocolatey ashes. We hope.