'Friday Night Lights' Movie 2013 Based on TV Show Planned, Producer Brian Grazer Says
Fans of Friday Night Lights could be treated to a movie version of the football drama, says producer Bryan Grazer.
With successful Kickstarter campaigns for Zach Braff's "spiritual" sequel to Garden State and the record-setting Veronica Mars movie adaptation project, the producers of television's Friday Night Lights are looking to tap into the crowd-funding trend.
Producer Brian Grazer told Deadline on Thursday that a movie based on the series is being planned: "We made a terrific feature with Pete Berg, turned it into a terrific TV series and will now make a movie from that series."
Though crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter have helped independent projects of famous people and entities as of late, it is not foolproof. Melissa Joan Hart shut down her own campaign after lack of interest failed to fund her project. Producers of Friday Night Lights will be banking on the series' cult following to fund this movie project.
The Friday Night Lights franchise started with the 1990 book Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, and a Dream, which was adapted into a 2004 film starring Billy Bob Thornton. Raking in $61 million at the box office, the movie was adapted into a television series on NBC, recasting most of the roles and renaming the characters.
The television series ran from 2006-2011 despite low ratings and a move to DirecTV, and garnered an Emmy win for Kyle Chandler in the show's last season and nominations for Connie Britton and the show itself.
Since the series ended, the cast has appeared in high-profile roles in film and television. Kyle Chandler has had key roles in films like Super 8 and Zero Dark Thirty while Connie Britton has taken on lead roles in television's Nashville and the first season of American Horror Story. Taylor Kitsch has starred in big-budget action flicks like Battleship and John Carter.
