During the Comic-Con panel for Mike Judge’s upcoming film Extract, actor Jason Bateman once again stoked the fire that is the Arrested Development movie. The project, which has found itself in its own state of ‘arrested development’ over the past few years, has been gaining traction in recent months. And according to Bateman, it could be happening as early as the next 6 months and as late as the next 18 months.

According to a report from /Film, Bateman took time to state that “there is no reason to think that it is dead.” He also explained that series creator Mitch Hurwitz has been too busy with other television work to write the film, but that could change very soon.

Bateman also talked a bit about the movie’s potential jumping off point, an obvious one in the eyes of most fans:

It could be as early as the next six months or as late as 18. Mitch hasn’t told me what he has in mind. As fans of the show know, you can look at the very last scene of the last episode, [which] kind of dovetails into what the film could be. Maybe pitches to Ron Howard the idea about making a show about the family. He says “no, that wouldn’t work, but maybe a movie.” Read into that what you will.

For those who like to follow the Arrested Development movie development closely, there’s another event in the near future that could produce even more news. As we reported earlier this month, series Executive Producer Ron Howard will be in Austin for the Austin Film Festival in October. Another one of the fest’s special guests is Mitch Hurwitz. It’s safe to say that we’ll be there to see what may or may not transpire.

For more from San Diego, check out our Comic-Con ’09 Homepage.