ABILENE, TX – The 2009 Abilene High Eagles football season was a story of David vs Goliath. However, in the case of the Eagles, David won.
Their remarkable path to winning the state high school football championship inspired a book written by Al Pickett and Chad Mitchell. That book, “Brother’s Keeper: The Story of the 2009 Abilene High State Championship”, later became a movie called “Brother’s Keeper”.
Parts of that movie were filmed right here in Abilene and includes lots of Abileneans as extras. That version of the movie was premiered in March of 2019, here in Abilene, and received mixed reviews from those that attended. At that point, I figured the movie would be shelved and we’d never see it again. That is, until recently when news came out that the movie was picked up by Saban films and given new life.
The title of the movie has been changed to “Under the Stadium Lights” and is expected to be released, nationally, on June 4th, 2021. You’ll be able to watch it at theaters as well as streaming platforms like iTunes and Amazon Prime.
The movie stars Laurence Fishburne, Milo Gibson, and Eddie George (NFL veteran) – among others. While the rough draft premiere may have cast Abilene in a negative light, the revised version of the film is more of a feel-good story, according to some close to the project.
The official trailer has just been released and can be seen at the top of this page. Just based on the trailer, this is going to be a rad movie. Will it rival Friday Night Lights? Only time will tell, but the trailer shows it possibly can compete.
