Couple film 'not a difficult job'

Jason Bateman and Kristen Bell (left), with Malin Akerman and Vince Vaughn

Heading off to a tropical island for relationship therapy and dragging along your mates for support. That's the idea behind new Hollywood comedy Couples Retreat.

Arrested Development star Jason Bateman and Gossip Girl narrator Kristen Bell play the couple whose marriage is in need of fixing.

Kristen said the film definitely "wasn't trying to be preachy" but was just a light-hearted "funny look at relationships".

The 29-year-old also admitted she was more than happy to be shooting another movie in the sun, after previously taking the lead in Hawaii-based Forgetting Sarah Marshall.

"We're not trying to tell you this was a difficult job by any means. We both feel very lucky to be here," she said.

The action in Couple's Retreat takes place on the remote Pacific Ocean island of Bora Bora, with a few other well known faces completing the cast.

Vince Vaughn and Kristin Davis (Charlotte from Sex and the City) also star in the movie.

They play two of the mates who end up joining in with the strange therapy sessions.

However, Kristen resisted the temptation to push her female co-star for the latest gossip from the new Sex and the City movie.

She said: "I actually want to continue being a viewer and I didn't want any spoilers. So I didn't ask her a single time."

Oscar talk

Jason Bateman, Kristen's husband in the movie, admitted there was a lot of banter on set but said he normally came a woeful third to his male co-stars.

He said: "Well, there was a battle for the bronze because Jon (Favreau) and Vince, not necessarily in that order, took the gold and the silver.

Jason Bateman and Vince Vaughn get up close at the Australian premiere

He joked: "We all just tried to get along and not upset the boat, and enjoy the watersports. Most of the fighting was on the female side.

On a slightly more serious note, Bateman also confirmed that his Arrested Development character, Michel Bluth, is heading to the big screen in a film version of the cult comedy.

"It's being written and we'll start shooting in the middle of next year," he said.

Forty-year-old Bateman could well be one of the names to look out for in the coming year, especially considering the Oscar whispers around Up In The Air, a comedy/drama he's done with George Clooney.

"I think George Clooney and Jason Reitman (director of Juno) should be getting an Oscar, at the very least a nomination," said Bateman.

Up In The Air stars Clooney as a manager whose cherished lifestyle jetting around America firing employees is suddenly threatened. It's due out in the UK in January 2010.

"It's a very good film and I'm lucky to be in it," insisted the star.

Couples Retreat starring Kristen Bell and Jason Bateman is out now