X-Files 2 to start production in December
03-27-08 | 11:08 AM
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From: Bellefontaine, Ohio
From yahoo news:
X-Files' creator spills film details
By DERRIK J. LANG, AP Entertainment Writer 2 hours, 16 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - The truth about "The X-Files" sequel — some of it, anyway — is now out there.
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"X-Files" creator Chris Carter, writer Frank Spotnitz and other crew members gathered Wednesday to discuss the TV series — and declassify some information about the upcoming film.
The popular Fox paranormal drama, which aired from 1993 to 2002, starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully
"While this is not a mythology movie, it's true to everything that's come before," Spotnitz said at the William S. Paley Television Festival. "It's true to Mulder and Scully, who they are and where they would be this point in their lives and all of the experiences that they've had."
The series first made the leap to the big screen with 1998's "The X-Files: Fight the Future." Plans for another film were grounded in 2005 when Carter sued Fox over syndication profits for the show. The lawsuit was later settled.
Carter, who also directs the new movie, said it takes place in the present and uses a story envisioned when the series ended. While the show's sprawling alien mythology isn't part of the plot, Carter said there is a reference to Scully's seemingly supernatural son, William, who was born in season eight and later given up for adoption.
The film is due out July 25.
Carter was tightlipped about the title.
"I can't tell you," he said. "I know what I want it to be, but Fox has some ideas of their own."
X-Files' creator spills film details
By DERRIK J. LANG, AP Entertainment Writer 2 hours, 16 minutes ago
LOS ANGELES - The truth about "The X-Files" sequel — some of it, anyway — is now out there.
ADVERTISEMENT
"X-Files" creator Chris Carter, writer Frank Spotnitz and other crew members gathered Wednesday to discuss the TV series — and declassify some information about the upcoming film.
The popular Fox paranormal drama, which aired from 1993 to 2002, starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully
"While this is not a mythology movie, it's true to everything that's come before," Spotnitz said at the William S. Paley Television Festival. "It's true to Mulder and Scully, who they are and where they would be this point in their lives and all of the experiences that they've had."
The series first made the leap to the big screen with 1998's "The X-Files: Fight the Future." Plans for another film were grounded in 2005 when Carter sued Fox over syndication profits for the show. The lawsuit was later settled.
Carter, who also directs the new movie, said it takes place in the present and uses a story envisioned when the series ended. While the show's sprawling alien mythology isn't part of the plot, Carter said there is a reference to Scully's seemingly supernatural son, William, who was born in season eight and later given up for adoption.
The film is due out July 25.
Carter was tightlipped about the title.
"I can't tell you," he said. "I know what I want it to be, but Fox has some ideas of their own."
03-27-08 | 11:37 AM
#128
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Another interesting update from the Paley Festival.."
"By James Hibberd
"The X-Files" ended its run on Fox six years ago, but its writers and producers can still grouse about working on the show like it was yesterday.
The Paley Festival session on the long-running hit series featured a dozen members of the cast and crew. The overall theme of the evening was that working "The X-Files" was very hard. In terms of news value, the panel was trapped in an “X-Files”-esque netherworld: The TV show is yester-decade's news, while this summer's new "X-Files" movie is of very high interest. Yet creator Chris Carter is naturally unwilling to give any spoilers. The panel moderator -- Variety deputy editor Cynthia Littleton -- is thus charged with the tricky task of either asking about a series that's been endlessly discussed, or asking about a movie that cannot be discussed. Plus, charismatic leads David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson did not attend. So, again, tricky.
Luckily, some fine nuggets were nonetheless unearthed about the movie, those controversial final seasons, dealing with Fox censors and the bizarre "X-Files" 9/11 connection.
The movie
The second "X-Files" movie was delayed due to Carter's 2005 lawsuit against 20th Century Fox Television claiming the studio short-changed him on syndication fees. Carter says the moment the lawsuit settled out of court, Fox was ready to do the movie.
The film has wrapped shooting and is currently scheduled for release on July 25. The trailer (shown twice for an enthusiastic Paley crowd) features lots of snow, running, a large syringe and a helicopter.
Most everything else is pretty hush-hush, including the title.
"I know what I want it to be, but Fox has ideas of their own," Carter says. "I know what it should be."
The film will pick up six years after the end of the series. It's supposed to be a standalone feature removed from the alien mythology of the TV show, a throwback to the show's "monster of the week" episodes. Still, some lingering aspects from the series, like whether Scully's child will be a normal tyke, will be addressed.
"It will not be a mythology movie, but it's true to everything that's come before," says writer-producer Frank Spotnitz.
The final seasons
Let's quickly check off the ways "X-Files" influenced modern primetime TV: Strong female investigator, serialized story lines, sci-fi themes, writers taking story cues from online message boards -- "The X-Files" trailblazed. "Lost," "Heroes," "Jericho," "Battlestar Galactica," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"... the entire modern pantheon of Geek-TV owes a huge debt.
And then there's the last few seasons, eight and nine in particular. The series' tortured final years wound down like some sort of cautionary tale of network timeslot addiction: The quasi-recasting of the lead characters (fans, meet agents Doggett and Reyes), the constant cliffhangers upon cliffhangers, the Gordian knot of tangled alien mythology that no amount of Scully's logic or Mulder's theories could ever explain, even the inevitable ill-conceived spinoff with minor characters expanded to leading actor status -- remember "The Lone Gunmen"?
"X-Files" finally died in 2002. The ending: Yet another cliffhanger. When it came to giving loyal fans closure, "X-Files" makes "The Sopranos" look like "The Love Boat."
Yet the show's meandering third act also became influential, teaching an inadvertent lesson. The producers of "Lost" almost certainly would not be so eager to set an end date for their South Pacific island adventure if not for "The X-Files." Same with "Battlestar." For serialized shows, there's now a powerful desire to conclude with class and style. The creative meltdown of the "X-Files" is oft-cited as the exact model to avoid: "You don't want to go out like that" is the fanboy refrain, as if "X-Files" died of a long bout with pancreatic cancer rather than simply airing a few mediocre seasons.
Littleton asks Carter if he had any regrets about the final season. The room goes dead quiet.
"I'm not going to admit to my regrets," Carter says. "I look back [and wonder] why did I make that choice ... [but] you never imagine it's going to go nine years ... you have an idea where you're going to, but you don't know how long it's going to take you to get there ... you're always going to be dealing with a new landscape each week ... I'm going to say, no, I have no regrets."
Translation: Of course I have regrets, but, really, how do I benefit from listing them here and now?
Carter's process seems to be very, as creatives like to say, organic. He notes that he was largely winging the mythology story line and that having a series bible -- standard practice for a show -- is "a really stupid idea because they can fire you and get somebody else." He added that the mythologies of the show flowed together and the "connections were really beautiful" in the middle of the series' run.
The sense is that Carter didn't try to impose his will over the direction of the show, which resulted in a character-driven, flowing story that went wherever it wanted, for better or worse.
Watching the crew reminisce together, one is also reminded of the bottom-line reality of what it means to end a television show: You and all your co-workers, many of whom are your friends, lose their jobs.
9/11
Here's what happened in the short-lived "The Lone Gunmen" spinoff's March 2001 pilot episode: The Lone Gunmen stop a plot to hijack a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center. Really. How did they react to the September terrorist attacks having dramatized a very similar scenario just six months prior?
"It was freaky, and one of the weirdest things is no one really asked us about it," Carter says. "It had been imagined before, by many others."
"Condoleezza Rice is saying its an unimaginable crime -- hello, my pilot!" adds "Lone Gunman" actor Dean Haglund.
"It made me angry," Spotnitz says. "It was not unimaginable. My first thought was ... 'Oh my god, I hope they weren't copycatting the Lone Gunmen, which they weren't. My next thought was: 'Why weren't we prepared for this?' "
Odds and ends
"You get these magnificent sculptures and it ends up being a rubber suit on a guy and they look stupid. So you want to turn all the lights off because I can see the suit and I start laughing and I can't direct the scene." -- director Rob Bowman on how silly monster costumes helped inspire the show's distinctive low-lit look.
[Hearing the show's theme music for the first time] "I'm like, 'What the hell is that?' And Chris is like, 'I like this; it's like whistling in a graveyard.' And I'm like, 'Whatever' ... Chris wanted to leave room at the end of the credits for 'The Truth Is Out There,' and I'm like, 'What for?" -- writer-producer Glen Morgan, gamely reciting how Carter was clued in to how some of the show's signature elements would be effective early on.
"They said you can't deal with necrophilia, you cannot put necrophilia on television. So I thought, 'What do I do now?' So I just called him a death fetishist ... and they said, 'that's great.' " -- Carter in getting his first solo scripted episode, "Irresistible," past Fox censors.
"At that point it was very polite and very helpful then ... it exploded and became vicious ... and it became unhelpful." -- Morgan on how online message boards aided writers with constructive feedback before devolving into a flamewar.
"The problem in television is the train doesn't stop. Every eight days is a new show ... that drive wears you down" -- Bowman on the "X-Files" workload.
"It will not go unconsidered in the movie," -- Carter on giving fans some added insight into whether Scully's baby turned out normal vs. paranormal.
"We've talked about it over the years ... Lance [Henriksen] would love to do it ... [but] it's a long shot" -- Carter, on doing a follow-up to "Millennium."
"I came up first day I got the whole suit on and Ducoveny comes up to me and he shakes my hand and I've never met him before and he leans into me and says: 'Why are you doing this?'" -- Darin Morgan, on playing fan favorite monster-in-a-suit Flukeman.
"It never got easy. In the nine years, it was always difficult trying never to repeat yourself" -- Spotnitz, on workload.
"I never had a good since of how popular it was, I had my head down ... working to make my deadlines. Not until we did the movie" -- Carter, on "X-Files" popularity.
"By James Hibberd
"The X-Files" ended its run on Fox six years ago, but its writers and producers can still grouse about working on the show like it was yesterday.
The Paley Festival session on the long-running hit series featured a dozen members of the cast and crew. The overall theme of the evening was that working "The X-Files" was very hard. In terms of news value, the panel was trapped in an “X-Files”-esque netherworld: The TV show is yester-decade's news, while this summer's new "X-Files" movie is of very high interest. Yet creator Chris Carter is naturally unwilling to give any spoilers. The panel moderator -- Variety deputy editor Cynthia Littleton -- is thus charged with the tricky task of either asking about a series that's been endlessly discussed, or asking about a movie that cannot be discussed. Plus, charismatic leads David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson did not attend. So, again, tricky.
Luckily, some fine nuggets were nonetheless unearthed about the movie, those controversial final seasons, dealing with Fox censors and the bizarre "X-Files" 9/11 connection.
The movie
The second "X-Files" movie was delayed due to Carter's 2005 lawsuit against 20th Century Fox Television claiming the studio short-changed him on syndication fees. Carter says the moment the lawsuit settled out of court, Fox was ready to do the movie.
The film has wrapped shooting and is currently scheduled for release on July 25. The trailer (shown twice for an enthusiastic Paley crowd) features lots of snow, running, a large syringe and a helicopter.
Most everything else is pretty hush-hush, including the title.
"I know what I want it to be, but Fox has ideas of their own," Carter says. "I know what it should be."
The film will pick up six years after the end of the series. It's supposed to be a standalone feature removed from the alien mythology of the TV show, a throwback to the show's "monster of the week" episodes. Still, some lingering aspects from the series, like whether Scully's child will be a normal tyke, will be addressed.
"It will not be a mythology movie, but it's true to everything that's come before," says writer-producer Frank Spotnitz.
The final seasons
Let's quickly check off the ways "X-Files" influenced modern primetime TV: Strong female investigator, serialized story lines, sci-fi themes, writers taking story cues from online message boards -- "The X-Files" trailblazed. "Lost," "Heroes," "Jericho," "Battlestar Galactica," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"... the entire modern pantheon of Geek-TV owes a huge debt.
And then there's the last few seasons, eight and nine in particular. The series' tortured final years wound down like some sort of cautionary tale of network timeslot addiction: The quasi-recasting of the lead characters (fans, meet agents Doggett and Reyes), the constant cliffhangers upon cliffhangers, the Gordian knot of tangled alien mythology that no amount of Scully's logic or Mulder's theories could ever explain, even the inevitable ill-conceived spinoff with minor characters expanded to leading actor status -- remember "The Lone Gunmen"?
"X-Files" finally died in 2002. The ending: Yet another cliffhanger. When it came to giving loyal fans closure, "X-Files" makes "The Sopranos" look like "The Love Boat."
Yet the show's meandering third act also became influential, teaching an inadvertent lesson. The producers of "Lost" almost certainly would not be so eager to set an end date for their South Pacific island adventure if not for "The X-Files." Same with "Battlestar." For serialized shows, there's now a powerful desire to conclude with class and style. The creative meltdown of the "X-Files" is oft-cited as the exact model to avoid: "You don't want to go out like that" is the fanboy refrain, as if "X-Files" died of a long bout with pancreatic cancer rather than simply airing a few mediocre seasons.
Littleton asks Carter if he had any regrets about the final season. The room goes dead quiet.
"I'm not going to admit to my regrets," Carter says. "I look back [and wonder] why did I make that choice ... [but] you never imagine it's going to go nine years ... you have an idea where you're going to, but you don't know how long it's going to take you to get there ... you're always going to be dealing with a new landscape each week ... I'm going to say, no, I have no regrets."
Translation: Of course I have regrets, but, really, how do I benefit from listing them here and now?
Carter's process seems to be very, as creatives like to say, organic. He notes that he was largely winging the mythology story line and that having a series bible -- standard practice for a show -- is "a really stupid idea because they can fire you and get somebody else." He added that the mythologies of the show flowed together and the "connections were really beautiful" in the middle of the series' run.
The sense is that Carter didn't try to impose his will over the direction of the show, which resulted in a character-driven, flowing story that went wherever it wanted, for better or worse.
Watching the crew reminisce together, one is also reminded of the bottom-line reality of what it means to end a television show: You and all your co-workers, many of whom are your friends, lose their jobs.
9/11
Here's what happened in the short-lived "The Lone Gunmen" spinoff's March 2001 pilot episode: The Lone Gunmen stop a plot to hijack a plane and fly it into the World Trade Center. Really. How did they react to the September terrorist attacks having dramatized a very similar scenario just six months prior?
"It was freaky, and one of the weirdest things is no one really asked us about it," Carter says. "It had been imagined before, by many others."
"Condoleezza Rice is saying its an unimaginable crime -- hello, my pilot!" adds "Lone Gunman" actor Dean Haglund.
"It made me angry," Spotnitz says. "It was not unimaginable. My first thought was ... 'Oh my god, I hope they weren't copycatting the Lone Gunmen, which they weren't. My next thought was: 'Why weren't we prepared for this?' "
Odds and ends
"You get these magnificent sculptures and it ends up being a rubber suit on a guy and they look stupid. So you want to turn all the lights off because I can see the suit and I start laughing and I can't direct the scene." -- director Rob Bowman on how silly monster costumes helped inspire the show's distinctive low-lit look.
[Hearing the show's theme music for the first time] "I'm like, 'What the hell is that?' And Chris is like, 'I like this; it's like whistling in a graveyard.' And I'm like, 'Whatever' ... Chris wanted to leave room at the end of the credits for 'The Truth Is Out There,' and I'm like, 'What for?" -- writer-producer Glen Morgan, gamely reciting how Carter was clued in to how some of the show's signature elements would be effective early on.
"They said you can't deal with necrophilia, you cannot put necrophilia on television. So I thought, 'What do I do now?' So I just called him a death fetishist ... and they said, 'that's great.' " -- Carter in getting his first solo scripted episode, "Irresistible," past Fox censors.
"At that point it was very polite and very helpful then ... it exploded and became vicious ... and it became unhelpful." -- Morgan on how online message boards aided writers with constructive feedback before devolving into a flamewar.
"The problem in television is the train doesn't stop. Every eight days is a new show ... that drive wears you down" -- Bowman on the "X-Files" workload.
"It will not go unconsidered in the movie," -- Carter on giving fans some added insight into whether Scully's baby turned out normal vs. paranormal.
"We've talked about it over the years ... Lance [Henriksen] would love to do it ... [but] it's a long shot" -- Carter, on doing a follow-up to "Millennium."
"I came up first day I got the whole suit on and Ducoveny comes up to me and he shakes my hand and I've never met him before and he leans into me and says: 'Why are you doing this?'" -- Darin Morgan, on playing fan favorite monster-in-a-suit Flukeman.
"It never got easy. In the nine years, it was always difficult trying never to repeat yourself" -- Spotnitz, on workload.
"I never had a good since of how popular it was, I had my head down ... working to make my deadlines. Not until we did the movie" -- Carter, on "X-Files" popularity.
03-27-08 | 12:48 PM
#129
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From: Muncie, IN [Member formerly known as abrg923]
So that's good...they're not going to ignore the latter seasons, or the fact that Mulder & Scully were kicked out of the FBI.
03-27-08 | 01:47 PM
#130
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From: WAS looking for My Own Private Stuckeyville, but stuck in Liberty City (while missing Vice City)
Originally Posted by chris_sc77
The trailer (shown twice for an enthusiastic Paley crowd) features lots of snow, running, a large syringe and a helicopter.
03-27-08 | 02:45 PM
#131
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Cool article. Thanks for the post Chris.
03-27-08 | 07:33 PM
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From: Rainy ass Seattle yes the weather sucks here, so do our sports teams.
Originally Posted by redrum
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/FeUtHxIWl1w&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/FeUtHxIWl1w&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>
03-27-08 | 07:33 PM
#134
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03-27-08 | 08:17 PM
#135
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Finally a movie from Fox that I am actually looking forward to seeing.
03-28-08 | 12:26 AM
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From: Export, PA
Wow.....the theme song is shrill as hell in that one video. Ouch.
I am surprised that I didn't get the chills from it but maybe seeing the trailer on the big screen will make it click more for me.
I am surprised that I didn't get the chills from it but maybe seeing the trailer on the big screen will make it click more for me.
03-28-08 | 10:53 AM
#139
DVD Talk Godfather
Wow. That's kinda weak for a poster. It shows promise but looks like an unfinished piece.
03-28-08 | 10:57 AM
#140
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Originally Posted by Michael Corvin
Wow. That's kinda weak for a poster. It shows promise but looks like an unfinished piece.
03-28-08 | 02:29 PM
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From: Rainy ass Seattle yes the weather sucks here, so do our sports teams.
Originally Posted by Michael Corvin
Wow. That's kinda weak for a poster. It shows promise but looks like an unfinished piece.
Very similar to the Fight The Future teasers of the corn field, ice and desert scenes.
03-28-08 | 03:10 PM
#143
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Originally Posted by Michael Corvin
Wow. That's kinda weak for a poster. It shows promise but looks like an unfinished piece.
03-28-08 | 03:40 PM
#144
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Originally Posted by riley_dude
Its just a teaser poster.
See below:
Or just look at the teasers for Fight the Future:
Compared to:
I was just hoping for a little more.
03-28-08 | 04:21 PM
#145
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Originally Posted by Michael Corvin
A teaser that's supposed to get you excited for a flick.
See below:
Or just look at the teasers for Fight the Future:
Compared to:
I was just hoping for a little more.
See below:
Or just look at the teasers for Fight the Future:
Compared to:
I was just hoping for a little more.
03-28-08 | 05:05 PM
#148
DVD Talk Legend
This might be my most anticipated flick of the summer. I'm a huge Files fan. The teaser poster is awesome. Carter has already said the title isn't set in stone yet, so we're not going to get cool posters featuring title words until they decide. I'm stoked.
03-28-08 | 05:27 PM
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From: Bellefontaine, Ohio
I like the poster. Like others have said: simple, but effective.
I am very curious to find out what they are gonna call this. I hope Fox dosn't go for something like Live Free or Die hard.
I am very curious to find out what they are gonna call this. I hope Fox dosn't go for something like Live Free or Die hard.
03-28-08 | 06:56 PM
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From: Rainy ass Seattle yes the weather sucks here, so do our sports teams.
Originally Posted by KillerCannibal
This might be my most anticipated flick of the summer.
Not to rag on your excitement, but there is no way anticipation (outside the sci-fi, X-files world) this movie is more anticipated than Indiana Jones 4 or The Dark Knight. I personally LOVE the X-Files, but it might be too little too late on this, 10 years.... I don't see this movie being a big hit, then again I may be wrong.