A new Netflix series called Ozark will star Jason Bateman and is set to release sometime in the later half of 2017. Netflix is rumored to have picked up the series but hadn't yet confirmed anything as of last week. A new report on Lake Expo says the new Netflix series has been in negotiations for the last two months.
According to Lake Expo, the new Netflix series was ordered last fall, even though Netflix has repeatedly declined to comment on the new project. The Hollywood Reporter claims that Netflix is nearing a deal to produce Ozark and would be the first reunion with 47-year-old Bateman since he returned to his role as Michael Bluth in the television sitcom Arrested Development. Bateman played the Bluth brother character for three years on FOX before a fourth season of Arrested Development was picked up by Netflix in 2013.
Bateman's new Netflix series is said to focus on the Lake of the Ozarks area located in central Missouri. Bill Dubuque, who wrote the screenplay for the 2014 American drama film The Judge starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Robert Duvall, created the new drama series, Ozark, which follows a family man's life during a move from the big city to the Lake of the Ozarks, where he begins a long road to paying off debt owed to a ruthless Mexican drug lord from a money-laundering scheme.
"Ozark will explore the dark and dangerous world of drug-money laundering in rural Missouri," as described by TV Series Finale.
Bateman's character in Ozark, Marty Bird, sets up a new drug operation in Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks tourist region to earn money to pay off the drug lord in exchange for his life.