Friends movie will 'never happen'

The majority of the main cast - Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc - are set to reunite to celebrate the career of James Burrows, who directed a number of episodes of the TV series, next month but the writer of the show has insisted a film starring the cast in their original roles will "never" be made.

She told E! News: "There will never be a 'Friends' reunion movie."

Fans of the long-running sitcom, which ended in 2004, shouldn't get their hopes up that the cast will return to their roles at Burrows' NBC TV tribute either as Schwimmer has revealed they are just expected to come up on stage and talk about their pal for the special.

Schwimmer previously said: "It's a tribute to Jimmy Burrows who we love and I'm just thrilled to be a part of it. As many of us that can be there will be there and the casts of so many shows are going to try to be there - 'Frasier', 'Cheers', 'Will and Grace', it goes on. 'Taxi'. This man is an incredible director who helped define situation comedy in this country in the last 40 years so I love him and I'm excited to be there ... I have no idea what's expected of us - I honestly don't. I'm flying in that day, so I'm just showing up. From what I've been told from ['Will and Grace' actor] Sean Hayes, we're all going to come up on stage and talk about Jim and give him a hug."