"Clear eyes, full hearts". For fans of the Friday Night Lights TV series, those words have come to mean something special. When the show finally ended it's run, kept alive solely on the rabid support of the fan base, the hope was always that their beloved story would continue in some way. Within weeks, Peter Berg had expressed his own desire to keep it going on the silver screen, and then shortly thereafter we learned that the film was in development. Now, while Berg was chatting to Details about Battleship, FNL co-star Connie Britton dropped by and...well, let's let her say it herself....
Britton: So, I had a meeting at Jason Katims' office. And we were talking about something else and I said, "Forget about all that. Is this movie going to happen?" I was sitting on his couch, and he's like, "Look behind you." And I look behind me and it's a wall with a big, huge corkboard on it with all these 3x5 cards. That's what these writers do, they do the whole story on 3x5 cards. He's like, "That's the movie."
To which Berg replied "We're doing the movie". Simple as that, right? It's certainly the clearest indicator that the film is happening. Berg has spoken about it in the past, stating that if the film was made it would be based on the recent Texas Tech controversy that saw head coach Mike Leach fired for supposedly abusing a player. That player turned out to be Adam James, the son of football star and ex-ESPN analyst Craig James, who I remember going on TV as much as possible to run Leach into the ground. James admitted to lying about what happened, and Leach ultimately wound up coaching at Washington State.
There are some obstacles, though. The film hasn't been given the greenlight by Universal, and even though Berg has some serious stroke, a lot of this is going to depend on whether her can all of the major cast members to return. That includes star Kyle Chandler, who has seen his stock rise over the last year. Most important would be Taylor Kitsch coming back as Tim Riggins. Berg seems confident in getting both, so I think FNL fans can start re-watching those old episodes in preparation.
