Page to Screen: Friday Night Lights

The Author Approves

Moviefone spoke to author H.G. "Buzz" Bissinger about 'Friday Night Lights,' the movie based on his best-selling nonfiction book about the Permian Panthers -- a championship high school football team in small-town Odessa, Texas. Here's what Bissinger said about Peter Berg's (coincidentally, he's Bissinger's cousin) adaptation.

Moviefone What did you think about the film?

Buzz Bissinger I think it is a terrific movie, and it captures the essence of what these kids sacrificed. This movie, just like the book, is gritty; it's authentic, it's muted. There are no scenes of dancing in the street. I don't think there are any cheap Hollywood emotional compromises.

Peter [Berg] and I are second cousins. I love Pete, but I love my book more. Since it came out in 1990, it has sold more than 750,000 copies. It is a book that is beloved by hundreds of thousands. I'm close to the kids in the book. Like any writer, I was worried that there would be this tendency for the movie to go for easy cheap emotions, to clown it up, to make it like 'Varsity Blues.' Pete has not done that. He made the right creative choices.

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