There’s trouble brewing in Dillon, Texas, and it’s not just caused by the literal split of the town. There are other splits coming, including a few of our favorite TV couples, who have some rocky roads ahead.
We sat down with Friday Night Lights’ Connie Britton prior to her Conversations session at the SAG Foundation, and she dished what’s in store for the citizens of Dillon in season four, which kicks off production on Sept. 2.
A rather glorious thing happened in March, when TV’s acclaimed if undersampled Friday Night Lights was renewed for not one but two more seasons. Although the series’ NBC return is a small eternity away (summer 2010) and its DirecTV premiere is still “TBD,” we tackled the opportunity to speak with Connie Britton about Tami’s “roller coaster” past, and apparently finite future.
TVGuide.com: I want you to know that my wife got hooked on Friday Night Lights this past season — and I think it’s largely due to the tactile and real performances given by you, Kyle Chandler, et al.
Connie Britton: Aw, that’s so awesome! That’s what I’m talking about, that’s what we need to do.
TVGuide.com: Hey, every head counts. What was your favorite thing about playing Tami last year?
Britton: For me, it felt like a roller coaster. The whole aspect of being principal was really interesting, because when I first heard about that, I was heady with power! I was like, “This is the be-all and end-all,” Kyle was jealous. … It was fantastic. And then they were like, “Yeah, but you’re going to have a huge head-to-head issue with Buddy, and ultimately you’ll lose.” [Laughs] I was like, “No fair!”
For the fans who worked really hard to keep Friday Night Lights on the air, don’t fret. The announcement of the series ending after two more seasons isn’t necessarily set in stone.
Although FNL star Connie Britton recently said the original two-season pickup would likely be the end of the show, she told us, “You never know—if it does do really, really well, maybe they would go on for more seasons.”
So what do the possible final seasons hold for the Taylors and the rest of Dillon?
Connie teased bad news for the couples in Dillon in season four, which goes into production on Sept. 2. FNL veteran Peter Berg is directing the first episode, which will likely have a time lapse similar to season two. Said Connie, “I bet that they will do it from that three-month ending to the beginning of the new school season, which would be September.”
SAUGATUCK – Passes are on sale for the 11th Annual Waterfront Film Festival, which will be held June 11-14 in Saugatuck.
The festival is one of the leading destination film festivals in the Midwest, regularly hosting Midwest premieres of Academy Award-winning and nominated documentaries. In 2007, SAGIndie recognized WFF as one of its top five film festivals.
The four-day festival, which will screen more than 70 films in five venues, has released an initial list of films that will be shown, including:
“Women in Trouble” (Midwest premiere) – A fun, campy modern-day take on the B-List “women in trouble” exploitation films of the 1970s, written and directed by “Snakes on a Plane’s” Sebastian Gutierrez. The intersecting stories of a flight attendant, a psychiatrist, a masseuse, a bartender, a pair of call girls, an adopted young girl and a porn star all weave together in the course of one serpentine day in Los Angeles. The amazing and talented ensemble cast is headed up by Carla Gugino (”Watchmen”) as porn start Electra Luxx, Connie Britton (”Spin City”), Adrianne Palicki (”Friday Night Lights”) and Marley Shelton (”Eleventh Hour”). Official selection, SXSW Festival.
“We are looking forward to another amazing festival,” said Hopwood DePree, co-founder of WFF. “With the increased awareness of the film industry in Michigan, we are anticipating a record number of attendees, and our current lineup offers something for everyone.”
Passes range in price from $70 to $75 for a day pass, which guarantees priority admission to all films and seminars for a single day, to $500 for a patron pass, which also offers entry to VIP mixers and includes a $200 tax-deductible contribution.
Filmgoers may also purchase a fast pass for $300 that gives priority admission to all films and seminars, as well as exclusive entry to Friday and Saturday VIP “meet and mingle” mixers. The $200 super pass option provides priority entry to all films and seminars for the festival.
Passes can be purchased online at www.waterfrontfilm.org and may be picked up at the WFF headquarters at 347 Water St. in Saugatuck, beginning Friday. Individual tickets will be available during the event and will go on sale when the full schedule is announced later this month.
The 2009 Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards will be broadcast on KLRU on May 28 at 8 p.m.
The show will run one hour and is the first time the event will be broadcast. The awards were held at Austin Studios on March 12. It will also be re-broadcast on KLRU2 on June 3 at 9 PM.
This year’s honorees were Larry Hagman, Powers Boothe, Catherine Hardwicke, Billy Bob Thornton and Rushmore, the Wes Anderson movie filmed in the Houston area.
Presenters included Linda Gray, Keith Carradine, Brendan Fraser and Dennis Quaid. Luke Wilson accepted honors on behalf of the cast and crew of Rushmore, and Thomas Haden Church took a turn as this year’s emcee.
Other special guests included the cast of Friday Night Lights Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, Brad Leland and Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Grammy Award-winning musician Ray Benson, 2003 Hall of Fame inductee Tobe Hooper, director of 1974’s Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Beastie Boy Adam Yauch and AFS Artistic Director and 2007 Hall of Fame inductee Richard Linklater, who honored the work of Horton Foote. Foote was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame in 2003 and died at 92 earlier this year.
Located at Austin Film Society’s Austin Studios, the Texas Film Hall of Fame Awards recognize actors, directors, screenwriters, musicians, filmmakers and films from, influenced or inspired by the Lone Star State. The proceeds from the event benefit the educational and artistic programs of the Austin Film Society.
For more information on Austin Film Society, visit www.austinfilm.org
Friday Night Lights star Connie Britton comes to Cubicle Confessions to talk about the show’s renewal, dating high school football players and trained cows.
Connie Britton has just joined the cast of the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street according to Variety.
She will play the role of Mrs. Thompson (Nancy’s mother) which is currently shooting and slated for an April 2010 release.
Britton recently appeared in The Last Winter with Ron Perlman but is best known as Nikki, the hyper-efficient office accountant with a chaotic personal life, on the ABC sitcom “Spin City”.
Already cast in the Platinum Dunes film are Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen) as Freddy Krueger, Rooney Mara as Nancy, Thomas Dekker (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles), Clancy Brown, Katie Cassidy, Kyle Gallner and Kellan Lutz.
Source: iconvsicon.com
From executive producers Peter Berg (The Kingdom) and Brian Grazer (The Da Vinci Code), the third season of the critically acclaimed, Emmy Award-winning series Friday Night Lights, currently airing on NBC, is coming to DVD on May 19.
Inspired by the best-selling book and theatrical film of the same name, the show features a great ensemble cast led by Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton and provides a heartfelt look at life, love and football in the small West Texas town of Dillon.
All 13 episodes of Season Three of Friday Night Lights will be featured on the four-disc set along with bonus features. Seasons Four and Five (2009-2010 and 2010-2011) will each contain 13 episodes as well, airing on DirecTV in the fall and NBC in spring.
Join us on Friday, May 1st, 2009 to support the African Children’s Choir and listen to their Music for Life concert.
In conjunction with SBK Films and OCB, Das Films is sponsoring a fundraiser for the African Children’s Choir, hosted by NBC’s Friday Night Lights’s Connie Britton and world renowned actor and producer, Damien Wayans.
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US Release Date: April 28 2009
If you want a poster child for why reality shows replaced traditional sitcoms at the turn of this century, look no further than Spin City. It was a show fueled by predictable jokes preceded by predictable set-ups, complex problems that can always be solved within 20-minutes without fail, story arcs that never last longer than two episodes, and conversations that could never be described as “authentic”. It’s no wonder that it got replaced by shows that where people eat bugs for money.