Friday Night Lights' Peter Berg says, 'Quit it, Mitt'

Peter Berg, creator of the Austin-shot TV series Friday Night Lights says I know Coach Taylor,  Coach Taylor is a friend of mine. You, Mitt Romney, are no Coach Taylor.

In other words, quit using the coach's slogan: "Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose" that Berg wrote.

Berg was behind both the Friday Night Lights film and TV show, but they are both based on Buzz Bissinger's book of the same name. Bissinger, who has long bashed Romney, now suddenly has come out in support of him. He's also shown himself to be a bit of a crank, if not a total nut. Bissinger and Berg are cousins, making it even more interesting.

Now word from actor Kyle Chandler, who is wisely keeping out of the fray.

Friday Night Lights: Book, movie, TV series, movie based on TV series?

Yes, there is still serious talk about a movie based on the Austin-shot TV series Friday Night Lights, which is based on the big-screen Friday Night Lights, which is based on the book Friday Night Lights, which is based on a real-life high school football team.

Read more about this latest development here, with details on the cast's reunion at the Emmy's after party celebrating the series' writing Emmy and Kyle Chandler's nod--held at a place fittingly called Dillon's.

The coach wins an Emmy!

Big congrats to Kyle Chandler for his upset win of an Emmy for his role as Coach Eric Taylor on television's Friday Night Lights. The show also got yet another writing Emmy. Alas, Connie Britton did not win best actress (but you can read more about her here). All the same, a fitting end for the beloved Austin-shot series.

What Chandler said:

"Let me thank the people of Austin, Texas, who welcomed us into their homes ... and brought the show to life."

I first met him on the set the first FNL season. You can read that piece from The Dallas Morning News here.

Saying goodbye to 'Friday Night Lights'

The final episode of Friday Night Lights airs on NBC on July 15. I was in the neighborhood of the football stadium set today in Austin, Texas, and stopped to see what was left of it (filming ended long ago). You can see the full set of photos here.

Oh, and for old time's sake, here are some pieces I wrote from the set in season one and season two of the show.



The dividing line between the Dillon (blue) and East Dillon (red) football fieldhouses.

The front of the Panther Fieldhouse.

Can Rob Thomas bring network TV back to Austin?

No, I'm not talking about the guy from some band (or at least that band). I'm talking about Rob Thomas, the guy who grew up in San Marcos and was a teacher before some middle-school novels changed his life. The guy from the Austin band Hey Zeus. The guy behind Veronica Mars. The guy who fairly recently moved back to Austin from Los Angeles.

Most important, I'm talking about Rob Thomas the guy whose single-camera Fox pilot Little in Common is set in Austin, but didn't shoot here (that's him on the pilot set above). Here's how it's described:

"With three families united through their kids’ Little League sports, it centers on the Wellers (Rob Corddry, Paula Marshall), who move from San Jose, Calif., to Austin, Texas, but find that their adjustment won't be quite that easy considering their Latino neighbors, the Pachecos (Lombardo Boyar, Alanna Ubach), have a radically different approach to child-rearing than they do, while their other new neighborhood acquaintances, the African American Burlesons (Kevin Hart, Gabrielle Union), take sports very seriously.

The question now is whether the show will be picked up (which seems likely given the cast, the folks behind it and similarities to Modern Family) and how much of the series will shoot in Austin. The first question will be answered at Fox upfronts--a dog and pony show for new shows--this coming Monday. The second is murkier. Yes, the show is set in Austin, and, yes, Thomas lives here now. But consider Kyle Killen whose short-lived Lone Star shot in Dallas and was set in Houston. Killen lives in Austin and made a last-minute attempt to move the shoot to Austin. It failed. Sometimes the creator doesn't have that much power.

But with a trained crew left over from Friday Night Lights and still no word on whether reshoots of Lifetime's Meet Jane will reap a series pickup (Lifetime had its upfronts in April), Austin is ripe for another network series. This could be it. Stay tuned.

FYI: We should also get word next Tuesday on ABC's Dallas-shot Good Christian Bitches (or whatever it's going to be called) and next Wednesday on TNT's Dallas reimagining as those networks stage upfronts.

Palicki's 'Wonder Woman' outfit

Seems former Friday Night Lights star Adrianne Palicki's duds for Wonder Woman are already causing a stir for not being patriotic enough.

Texas Film Hall of Fame awards

Renee Zellweger

Rip Torn

Connie Britton

Kyle Chandler


Britt Daniel of Spoon

Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler of Friday Night Lights

Ted Nugent plays "The Star-Spangled Banner"

Tattoos on Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson's head

Beth Broderick in the crowd

Emcee Wyatt Cenac

Richard Linklater

John Hawkes of Winter's Bone

Robert Rodriguez

Liz Smith

Actor Shiloh Fernandez and director Catherine Hardwicke


Gary Dourdan of CSI

Britt Daniel

Thomas "Hollywood" Henderson

Ted Nugent and John Pierson

Joey Lauren Adams

Ted Nugent, Shemane Nugent and their son

Birds?

'Friday Night Lights' Palicki is new 'Wonder Woman'

Friday Night Lights and Lone Star star Adrianne Palicki is the new Wonder Woman in David E. Kelley's pilot for NBC. More here.

Uh, and that's not her in the photo...

Rip Torn, Renee Zellweger, 'Friday Night Light' in Texas Film Hall of Fame

The Texas Film Hall of Fame is a semi-swanky celeb-gazing fest put on by the Austin Film Society that opens the South By Southwest Film Festival every year. The names of honorees are released in drips and drabs in advance of the March 10 event at Austin Studios.

Our first names for 2011 are Rip Torn, Renee Zellweger and the TV show Friday Night Lights (not to be confused with the movie and the book). Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton are accepting and Jesse Plemons, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson and Brad Leland are in attendance for Lights as it celebrates its swan song.

Along with them, presenters will include usual suspects Catherine Hardwicke, Luke Wilson, Richard Linklater and Thomas Haden Church.

The host is seemingly non-Texan Wyatt Cenac of The Daily Show fame. But wait! He grew up in Dallas and attended Jesuit College Preparatory School.

More names will be released soon, I'm sure. My next guess is Owen Wilson. Wanna take odds?

'Chase' stops running, what's next in Texas film/TV?

They've made my SHOT IN TEXAS "premium content" on the Dallas Morning News site, but here it is from today's paper...


'Chase' shuts down after NBC pulls it from schedule

By JOE O’CONNELL

NBC pulled Chase from its schedule just days before production on the show officially ended in North Texas this week. Five episodes remain unaired, and the move means the series probably won’t be back for a second season. The network earlier reduced the episode order from 22 to 18 after poor ratings.

Chase was the last of the major network series shot in Texas to close shop. It follows North Texas-shot Lone Star and The Good Guys, and Austin-shot My Generation and Friday Night Lights. Lights ended it fifth season on DirecTV this week, though the season won’t air on NBC until April.

All of the series faced ratings woes while also proving the mettle of Texas crews and bringing money to the state. Each episode is estimated to bring in at least $1 million in local spending.

If North Texas officials get their wish, the television production frenzy will continue.

“We do have projects that are looking,” said Janis Burklund of the Dallas Film Commission. “And that includes television pilots — plural — and features.”

Certainly the possibility with the highest profile is TNT’s modern-day take on Dallas . It was recently announced that Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray have all signed on for the series pilot, which will focus on the original characters’ children.

There was no word at press time that Dallas would shoot in Dallas, but Burklund remains cautiously optimistic. “They’re looking at their options,” she said of TNT reps. “I think we will know fairly soon.”

Also possibly on the horizon is the Dallas-set Good Christian Bitches , based on Kim Gatlin’s book of the same name. ABC has ordered a pilot presentation for the soap-like show from Sex and the City’s Darren Star.

The television floodgates opened after the 2009 Texas Legislature made its filming incentives payment more flexible and upped overall two-year spending to $60 million. The increase was seen as too little to attract a lot of major films, but perfect for network television. The current budget crunch is likely to shrink that amount considerably. An early proposal dropped it to $10 million for the next two years.

This week, Gov. Rick Perry proposed adding another $20 million on top of that for an even $30 million, as well as opening the possibility that additional funds could be added to the program if they could be freed up elsewhere.

The new session also brought a new leader to the Texas Film Commission, Dallas native Evan Fitzmaurice, who is keeping a politically low profile and letting legislators handle the politics of film incentives.

“There’s a process at work, and as a film commission, we are eager to answer their questions as we have in the past,” he said.

Don Stokes, president of the Texas Motion Picture Alliance, said cutting incentive funding now could halt the flow of television series to Texas.

“We’re prepared to look at a smaller appropriation,” he said. “We just feel it merits more than $30 million because of the jobs we bring to the state.”

The film group has commissioned an economic impact study aimed at proving that . The study is due March 1 from the Texas Association of Business.

Bonus footage

Fitzmaurice spent five years in Los Angeles as an entertainment attorney before joining Perry’s legal staff. He’s a graduate of Greenhill School in Addison. While attending the University of Texas, he wrote music reviews for The Daily Texan and played bass in the band Second Season. … When Angels Sing, a Christmas story directed by Tim McCanlies (Secondhand Lions ) and based on Turk Pipkin’s book, is currently shooting in Austin. The cast includes Harry Connick Jr., Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights ), Willie Nelson , Kris Kristofferson and Lyle Lovett.

Writers Guild nominates 'Friday Night Lights' for best drama

Austin-shot Friday Night Lights is finally getting the love as the lights begin to dim on the series. The Writers Guild of America has nominated the show for best written drama. Listen to the list of other nominees and you'll see it's no faint praise: Boardwalk Empire, Dexter, Mad Men and Breaking Bad.

Friday Night Light's fifth--and almost certainly last--season is airing currently on DirecTV and will show on NBC in the spring. Stars Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler both were nominated for Emmy Awards this year.

'Mandy Lane' may finally get release?

Yes, I loved All the Boys Love Mandy Lane when it screened at the South By Southwest Film Festival in 2007. Shot is Bastrop, it seemed to me an update on Heathers mixed with the sort of horror film that has come back in vogue in the last decade or so. And star Amber Heard, an Austin native, shines in the film, which was inexplicably shelved by the Weinsteins.

But the film got a secret screening at Comic-Con recently and there are hints it may finally get a release in the U.S. (It's already out on DVD overseas). Thanks for the tip from Slackerwood.com

Mandy Lane director Jonathan Levine (The Wackness) told me in 2007 that he looked for inspiration from two very Texas efforts, the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and NBC's series Friday Night Lights, as well as John Hughes' teen films from the 1980s.

"We thought it was interesting to take that [teen film] model and graft a horror film onto it," Levine said.

Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler nominated for Emmys

The series itself didn't get the love, but Friday Night Lights stars Connie Britton and Kyle Chandler both are nominated for Emmy Awards, it was announced this morning.

Read my recent Dallas Morning News column for more on Britton. I give her a good chance at a win. Chandler faces tougher competition, but don't count the coach out. Don't forget that he was previously Emmy nominated for his "explosive" guest spot on Grey's Anatomy. It's Britton's first nod.

The series also got a writing nomination for the episode "The Son," penned by Rolin Jones.

Austin-based casting director Beth Sepko was nominated for two Emmys--one for FNL and another for the Austin-shot HBO film Temple Grandin, which I finally watched this week. I give it four hooves up (kidding). Temple Grandin is up for best Outstanding Made-For-Television Movie and its star Claire Danes is up for best actress.

See the full list of nominees here.

John Lee Hancock plays ball with AMC

I totally missed word that John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, The Rookie, The Alamo) is on the verge of having a football-set series picked up by AMC. It couldn't happen to a nicer Baylor-trained former lawyer.

Here's the description via The Hollywood Reporter:

The Wreck, set in the world of Southern college football, centers on the high-profile head coach of a once-legendary team that has just finished a losing season. The school gives the coach one last chance to turn the team into winners or he's fired.

You've got to wonder how much the show will be inspired by Hancock's namesake father, the Coach, who died late last year.

Could this be the next Texas-shot football show as Friday Night Lights dims? Stay tuned.

'Friday Night Lights' a ratings winner?

The one given about Friday Night Lights has been that it's well-written and gets really crappy ratings. That's ending this summer. The show has been in first place or tied for first for five straight weeks as its fourth season airs on NBC. Could the show conceivably get picked up for a sixth season if this continues? You bet.

The big irony is the cast and crew are preparing to bid the show farewell as the last few of the 13 episodes for season five are being shot in Austin (They will air first on DircTV in the fall under the deal NBC struck with the satellite provider). Read my Dallas Morning News column from last Friday for Connie Britton's take on this.

(Almost) everything you ever wanted to know about Friday Night Lights' Connie Britton

Connie Britton interviewed by Reel Women's Sherry Mills.

Connie Britton spoke at length at Saturday's meeting of Reel Women, both about her career and about the television series Friday Night Lights. Here are some of the highlights:

On Friday Night Lights:

+ No, a sixth season will not happen.

+ She got teary-eyed recently while reading the script to the final season's tenth episode which is about to go before the cameras.

+ The fifth season will wrap up a lot of loose ends.

+ Look for orginal cast members to all return for the final episodes.

+ She was hesitant to do the show after playing the coach's wife in the film version of Friday Night Lights because the film role was so small. Peter Berg promised a larger role in the TV show.


On her background:

+ She went to Dartmouth but majored in Asian Studies, not theater, and spent a semester in China. Despite her major, she starred in many of the college's theatrical productions and raised the ire of some theater majors/profs.

+ Until recently she held a small grudge for the lack of support she got at the time of her graduation. She went back to the school to give an address and put it all behind her.

+ She attended the Neighborhood Playhouse after being rejected by other theater programs.

+ Her big break came in Edward Burns' low-budget The Brothers McMullen. She was visiting her sister in Washington D.C, and almost didn't show up for the NYC audition. The film was shot in the cast and crew's spare time and thus has a lot of continuity problems. Burns met Robert Redford on an elevator and handed him a tape of the completed film. It went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at Redford's Sundance Film Festival.

+ She is single, dating an L.A. writer and has two rescued dogs, one from Austin.

More in my Dallas Morning News column this coming Friday.

Minka Kelly stars in Fort Worth film

Minka Kelly of TV's Friday Night Lights is the star of Searching for Sonny, which started filming in Fort Worth this week. The script is from Fort Worth native Andrew Disney and it's produced by Cowtown's Red Productions.

And, yes, they want extras. Details are below.

Here's what they sent me about the film:

“It’s been a long time since a full-length feature film was shot here,” said Red Sanders, Sonny producer and owner of Red Productions. “We’re excited to use our lens to bring notoriety to the community that has supported us from the beginning and that has such a strong devotion to the arts.”

According to Sanders, scenes for Searching for Sonny will be shot at the following well-known local sites:

• Trinity Valley School
• Historic Electric Building
• Ol’ South Pancake House
• Caravan Inn
• Spinks Airport


“After combing the country for the right script, we ended up finding the perfect one in our own backyard,” continued Sanders. “Andrew Disney is extremely talented and shares in our vision to bring great filmmaking to Fort Worth; we’re excited to be teaming up with him for Sonny and beyond.”

The film will feature Kelly, known best for her role in the popular television series Friday Night Lights and for her recent appearance in the independent film hit 500 Days of Summer, as well as Jason Dohring, whose breakout role was in the critically-acclaimed show Veronica Mars. Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, who form the New York City comedy duo, BriTANick, will also play key roles in the film.

Members of the community who are interested in participating as extras in the film are welcome to send an e-mail to extras@redproductions.com and are asked to provide their contact information, age and gender.

About Searching for Sonny:

Searching for Sonny is a film that tells the story of Calvin, Elliot and Gary who return to their high school reunion to discover that their old buddy, Sonny, is missing under mysterious circumstances. After run-ins with the law, an ex-girlfriend and the corpse of the high school quarterback, the mystery turns meta when they realize that everything happening seems eerily similar to a play they performed in high school – a play Sonny wrote. To learn more, visit www.searchingforsonny.com

'Friday Night Lights' needs more extras

Friday Night Lights is back lensing its fourth season in Austin and they still need extras, including prisoners? My blog gets a lot of traffic seeking this info, so read on:

The NBC television series Friday Night Lights needs more football players, cheerleaders, teachers, townspeople... even prisoners.

Casting agents are looking for extras for the show's fourth season of filming in the Austin area. No experience is necessary. Filming will take place from September 2, 2009 through December 23, 2009. All extras will be paid for their work.

All applicants must be United States citizens and have valid photo ID and social security cards.

Here are some some specific types included in the casting call:

Football Players: ages 18-24, male, athletic types preferably with some football experience
Cheerleaders: ages 18-24, must have previous cheerleading experience
Football Sideline Trainers and Managers: ages 18-24, male and female
Pop Warner Football Players: ages 5-12, Pop Warner experience
Football Coaches: ages 35-65, male, athletic types
High School Students: ages 16-23
College Students: ages 18-28
Teachers, Boosters, Parents, Townspeople
Prisoners: ages 18-60, tough criminal looking types
Those interested can fill out an online application with On Location Casting.

Friday Night Lights casting call

It's time to audition for the fourth season of Friday Night Lights, to shoot soon in Austin. The show is guaranteed thirteen episodes this upcoming season and the same for one more year after that. Here's the skinny:

*Casting Call for Austin, Texas, Studio Television Series Friday Night Lights*

*Production Title*: Friday Night Lights

*Studio/Independent/Student*: Studio
*Production Company*: DirecTV / NBC
*Union/Non-Union*: Non-Union
*Project Type*: Television Series
*Other*: DirecTV/NBC
*Production Location*: Austin, Texas
*Production Start Date*: September 02, 2009
*Shooting Schedule*: multiple weeks/months throughout filming

*Producer*: Nan Bernstein
*Writer*: Jason Katims
*Director*: various

*Synopsis*:
Seasons 4 and 5 of the popular NBC television series

*Character Breakdowns*:

* FOOTBALL PLAYERS - male, age range 18-24 who look like they are in
High School, athletic, some previous football experience. MUST
have completed all NCAA eligibility and/or not intending to play
college football as this will jeopardize your eligibility. We are
casting our CORE Group of players, so MUST have 100% full-time
flexible availability and be able to make this project your
priority (this means no full-time job unless you can get out of it
as needed and you are not registered for school for fall/winter
semester!)
* CHEERLEADERS - female, age range 18-24 who look like they are in
High School, cute, athletic, MUST have previous cheerleading
experience. We are casting our CORE Group of cheerleaders, so MUST
have 100% full-time flexible availability and be able to make this
project your priority (this means no full-time job unless you can
get out of it as needed and you are not registered for school for
fall/winter semester!)

*Paid/Non-Paid*: Paid
*Other/Additional Compensation*: None
*Meals/Lodging/Transportation Provided*: Meals, Snacks and Beverages

Kimber Becker
Kimber12849@aol.com
Westside Marketing & Entertainment

Friday Night Lights gets two more seasons

It's official. Two more seasons for Austin-shot Friday Night Lights with a continuation of the joint deal between DirecTV and NBC. Unfortunately they will again by 13-episode seasons. That will make a total of 76 episodes for the show. The second season was shortened by the Writers Guild strike, and the third was concocted by the cable/network pact.