Trivia for
Friday Night Lights (2004) More at IMDbPro »

• To gather research, producers visited real high school football games in Texas during the fall of 2003.
  
  
• Frustrated with the authenticity of some actors playing assistant coaches, director Peter Berg turned to actual Permian High School coaches to deliver some lines during game sequences.
  
  
• Buzz Bissinger, who wrote the book on which the movie is based, and director and co-writer Peter Berg are cousins.
  
  
• Neither Derek Luke nor Lee Thompson Young had ever played football before.
  
  
• There are only two title cards at the beginning of the movie. The first is "The following story is based on the 1988 West Texas football season." The second is the movie title. The cast and crew are not shown until the end of the movie.
  
  
• Richard Linklater was attached to this project before 'Peter Berg' but it was scraped due to budget difficulties.
  
  
• Alan J. Pakula was originally set to direct this film before his death.
  
  
• At the end of the movie where Permian is trying to score right before the last play you can see director 'Peter Berg' jumping up and down in the stands.
  
  
• Live-action game sequences from the 2003 Permian High School football season are interspersed throughout the film. Director Peter Berg matched the uniforms and on-field jersey numbers for acted sequences so that the live clips would blend. Game sequences were shot on location at Ratliff Stadium in Odessa and the Astrodome in Houston.
  
  
• Texan experimental post-rock band Explosions in the Sky scored the movie. The producer used small pieces of older songs by Explosions in the Sky as placeholders, but eventually grew so fond of the pieces that he licensed them along with the original score produced by the band.
  
  
• The real James 'Boobie' Miles can be seen standing next to Derek Luke (playing Boobie Miles) several times throughout the film. He is wearing a black Permian jacket and hat.
  
  
• Garrett Hedlund gained an about additional 20 lbs for this movie on top of the 30 lbs that he had gained for Troy (2004). He was up to 200 lbs when he'd usually been 155.
  
  
• Derek Luke, who played high school player James 'Boobie' Miles, was actually 30 years old during filming. In the movie, he is portrayed as a teenager.
  
  
• Roy Williams, wide receiver for the Detroit Lions, has a cameo as assistant coach to Odessa's rival team. He played for Permian in high school.
  
  
• The state trooper who pulls up next to Chavez and Billingsley outside of the 7-11 is driving a special police package Ford Mustang that was made from the early 1980s to 1993, and Texas DPS did indeed use these cars at the time.
  
  
• The video clips used to show Dallas Carter playing the "Hays Rams" was actually a playoff game between the 02-03 Richardson Berkner Rams. One of the players captured from the Berkner highlights was Aqib Talib, who went on to become an All-American at Kansas and a first-round NFL Draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
  
  

• SPOILER: In reality, the 1988 Permian High School Panthers lost to Dallas-Carter in the state semi-finals, not the state finals. Carter did go on to win the state championship, but was later forced to forfeit its entire season when it was discovered that an academically ineligible player had been allowed to play after his grades were changed.
  
  

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