Paley Fest 2008: The X-Files
Written by: Tony Lazlo, CC2K Staff Writer
Mulder must persuade Scully to rejoin the FBI in the new X-Files movie, which will include a reference to or an appearance by her child, it was revealed at Paley Fest 2008 last night in Los Angeles.
Chris Carter headlined a panel of former X-Files stars and creative talent that included Frank Spotnitz, Mitch Pileggi, Dean Haglund, Nicholas Lea, David Nutter, Rob Bowman and many others.
Maybe I just happened to be sitting near a large group of squealing women, but the crowd seemed to be mostly women, while the panel was entirely men. This prompted Carter to quip at the start of the panel, “I want to assure everyone that I hired women on this show.”
Cynthia Littleton of Variety moderated. Here are the highlights:
• The trailer! They showed the teaser trailer twice. Carter and company revealed that the six years since the series finale will have passed for Mulder and Scully. Scully has left the FBI and is working in a hospital. Mulder persuades her to rejoin the Bureau. The trailer also features imagery right out of John W. Campbell’s Who Goes There and Howard Hawks’ The Thing – dozens of men forming a circle around the outline of something hidden in ice. Callum Keith Rennie, the mesomorph Daniel Craig lookalike from Battlestar Galactica, is also featured prominently in the trailer.
And here it is!
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• The movie is based on an existing idea. As most fans know, Carter wanted to do another X-Files movie right after the series ended. Carter confirmed that the new movie is derived from the original idea and retrofitted to meet their current needs.
• The movie will be a stand-alone adventure, not a mythology story.
“It will not be a mythology movie, but it’s true to everything that’s come before," Spotnitz said.
• Carter knows the title of the movie. Or at least he knows what it “should” be called. Apparently the suits at Fox have different ideas.
• Carter would love to do another project based on Millennium’s lead characters, Frank Black (Lance Henricksen).
“Lance would love to do it, but we don’t have any plans now,” Carter said.
• Carter has no plans to revisit an old project of his, World on Fire.
• Carter and his team never kept a “bible” of the show’s mythology.
“We made it up as we went,” Carter said.
• Carter, Haglund and just about everyone admitted that they didn’t notice the eerie similarity between the pilot for The Lone Gunmen and the 9/11 terror attacks until someone else pointed it out to them.
“It made me angry,” Spotnitz said. “Why weren’t we prepared? People had thought of this. It was on TV.”
• Nicholas Lea told a remarkable story about a trip he took to Edinborough.
“This seven-year-old kid shoves a letter in my hand. It’s addressed to Mulder and Scully, and it says, ‘There’s trouble in Ireland and the government won’t do anything.’ The kid told me he had written the Power Rangers, but they didn’t write back.”
• And lastly, Scully’s child, William, will be in the new movie – in some form.
“It will not go unconsidered in the movie,” Carter said.