The script for another Friday Night Lights movie is almost finished. (No, it’s not a sequel to that other one. This one is an adaptation of the TV show that was spun-off of the original movie. Got it? OK, onward.) And director-slash-producer Peter Berg said that the film’s plot will be based on embattled former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach.
Berg, who directed the original movie and created the TV spin-off, acknowledged to MTV on Tuesday that an FNL big-screen adaptation has been in the works and now it’s just a matter of working out scheduling conflicts:
“Jason Katims, who was our super talented show-runner, is about done with the script,” Berg said. “You never know. So much of these things become scheduling. Kyle [Chandler] is busy, Adrianne [Palicki] is busy, Taylor [Kitsch] is busy, Connie Britton is busy, but if we can get everyone in the same room at the same time, we all want to do it. We’re not done with ‘Friday Night Lights.’ “
Berg also added:
“[Katims] has come up with a really great storyline that parallels what happened to Mike Leach, one of my heroes, a coach at Texas Tech who was unjustly fired and unjustly accused of mistreating a player with a concussion, which was proven to not have been the case. He’s now at Washington State getting ready for what I think will be a great redemption story,” Berg explained. “It would be critical that we get Kyle and Connie [onboard for the film] — we anchored the show around them — and then bring in Riggins, Tyra, Lyla and all other characters as we could get them. But the idea is to really revolve it around the coach.”
Leach was fired as Texas Tech head football coach in 2009 after being accused of sending wide receiver Adam James, son of failing Senate candidate and former ESPN analyst Craig James, to stand in a utility room after sustaining a concussion. Leach denied ever personally instructing James to do so.
As for his personal involvement in the movie, Leach is about to start his first season in Pullman, so I doubt he’ll be able to follow-up his robotic TV cameo in the movie.