Jason Bateman Goes Tubing

Canada

Jason Bateman Goes Tubing

Mon., Jun. 16, 2008 7:57 AM PDT by Josh Grossberg

Robert C. Mora/WIreImage.com

Jason Bateman has a new development on his hands.

The former Arrested Development star has inked a one-year first-look deal with 20th Century Fox TV that will see him develop a variety of small-screen projects, some of which he'll produce and direct.

The 39-year-old Bateman, who at 18 became the youngest member of the Director's Guild when he helmed three episodes of The Hogan Family, just directed Do Not Disturb, a live-action comedy pilot starring Jerry O'Connell, and the only new series Fox greenlighted for the 2008-09 season.

Per the Hollywood Reporter, Bateman's pilot so pleased 20th TV bosses Dana Walden and Gary Newman that they wanted more. Under the agreement, 20th TV will get first shot at anything created by Bateman's F+A Productions. The thesp is in the process of hiring scribes to flesh out his ideas.

Next up for Bateman tubewise is voice work on Fox's upcoming 'toon, Sit Down, Shut Up. He also appears in the latest Will Smith summer box-office entry, Hancock, unspooling July 2, and then costars in the political thriller State of Play, opposite Russell Crowe, and Mike Judge's new comedy, Extract.