'Friday Night Lights' Movie Confirmed by Peter Berg

There's been a lot of buzz about a "Friday Night Lights" movie since the series ended this year, but it's all been just a bunch of rumors and hearsay. Until now, that is.

According to Deadline, EP Peter Berg has confirmed that an "FNL" movie is in fact in the works. Berg stated that the script is currently being written and everything is on track for a start date sometime in 2012. My assumption is that they would want to release this movie either during the fall high school and college football season, or else around Christmas...we'll see if production goes quickly enough for that to happen.

Interestingly, this would be the second time a "Friday Night Lights" movie has been made. The original "FNL," made back in 2004 with Billy Bob Thornton, was the inspiration for the TV show, which in turn is the inspiration for this new movie adaptation.

This time around, though, the movie will be Billy-Bob-free and feature the cast of the TV show, including Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton who were both recently nominated for Emmys.

The challenge here will be creating a movie that is both satisfying to fans, and stands as its own story for those unfamiliar with the show. It's likely that the movie will continue the story where the show left off, but it will have to do so in a way that doesn't leave non-fans in the dust.