The X-Files: I Want to Believe

[Sleepless]

white text explanation: in case you were wondering why sleepless whited out the following text without any context, it's a reference to whatever photos leaked before, which turned out not to be spoilers anyway. but you wouldn't know that unless you swiped the text.. which either no one or everyone was going to do, since he didn't preface it with any context.

Apparently the photos of the werewolf were leaked on purpose, and have nothing to do with the movie's storyline.

[diggler]

bootlegged teaser

http://www.cinematical.com/2008/02/24/first-x-files-2-trailer/

complete with loud nerd-gasms

[MacGuffin]

Carter Offers X-Files Hints

Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, told SCI FI Wire that the upcoming second movie will be a stand-alone story that represents the best of the series.

"This movie takes some of the most, I think, essential themes of The X-Files and incorporates them and puts them to the test," Carter said in a group interview at WonderCon in San Francisco on Feb. 23. "I think that for me, so much of The X-Files was about skepticism, but it was also about faith, and I think that plays a big part of this movie."

The plotline of the as-yet-unnamed sequel remains a big secret--so much so that neither Carter nor producer/writer Frank Spotnitz would confirm or deny that spy photos of a werewolf head from the set were intentionally bogus or not.

But Spotnitz, speaking alongside Carter, allowed that the sequel will be "a stand-alone, scary movie. Scary, exciting movie. But it's also very much about these characters, very personal. A romantic, I think, emotional story."

Footage from the sequel was unveiled at WonderCon and showed the character played by Billy Connolly (whom Carter would only identify as a man with really long hair) and Amanda Peet, who has been identified as an FBI special agent in charge who goes missing.

"We came up with the story about five years ago, and we liked it, and pitched it because Fox had asked us to come up with something," Carter said. Protracted negotiations and legal "entanglements" delayed the sequel's start, he added. "So when we got the call from Fox that said, 'Make this movie, it's either now or never,' we said, 'OK, let's dust off that old story.' And that's what we did. We dusted off that old story, and we saw that it needed work. So we got back to work on it."

The sequel mirrors the passage of real time since the end of Fox's The X-Files TV show. "The truth is, after all that time, Mulder and Scully were different people, and we were different people, so the 'X-File' we came up with five years ago is still the X-File in the movie, but their personal lives--the state of their relationship, all those things--have changed over time, and that was kind of interesting," Spotnitz said. "To not only think about them after all this time, but, really, us as writers and what mattered to us and what we wanted to say in this movie [has also changed]." The X-Files sequel is still in production in Vancouver, Canada, with an eye to a July 25 release.

[MacGuffin]

Filming of The X-Files sequel wraps
Creator Chris Carter, star David Duchovny thank city after secret-filled, three-month shoot
Source: The National Post

Goodbye, and thanks for all the aliens.

The cast and crew of the still-untitled X-Files feature film sequel wrapped up work in Vancouver with a news conference Wednesday, a brief lifting of a curtain of secrecy that the production has maintained through three months of filming.

"We've had lots of paparazzi," said writer-director Chris Carter. "In Langley a couple of days ago a black SUV pulled up on the side of the road and there was a long lens pointed at us."

The next day, pictures of stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, locked in a full-on kiss as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, appeared on Internet fansites alongside breathless speculation about the characters' are-they-or-aren't-they romance.

"We staged that," Mr. Duchovny told reporters at the Sutton Place Hotel, where media were informed Anderson would not attend due to illness.

"It's been a two-way street," says Mr. Carter of the prying eyes. "To tell you the truth, I would like to make the movie secretly and put it out there on July 25, have everybody get a gift they could open."

Mr. Duchovny finished work late the night before and was catching a plane to Los Angeles yesterday. The rest of the crew were to finish by week's end. The movie is a stand-alone story unconnected to the series' ongoing conspiracy thread, but beyond that they're not saying much.

"We're not doing an exercise in nostalgia to appeal to the fans of the show," said co-writer and producer Frank Spotnitz. "We saw this as an opportunity to introduce the characters to people who may have been too young . . . It has a reason for being, even if there'd never been a television show before."

Mr. Carter said their secrecy extended to the fluorescent-pink signs film productions use to direct crew to locations. Their signs read "Done One Productions."

The original series filmed for five years in Vancouver starting in 1993 and became a big hit for the Fox network, in turn boosting Vancouver's filmmaking profile.

"It would please me to no end to think that we were helpful to Vancouver, because this was the perfect city to film this particular show in," Mr. Duchovny said. "When we came here, we barely knew what we were doing, and as we got better, the crews grew with us."

The show moved production to Los Angeles after the fifth season and continued there for four more years. A 1998 feature film also shot in L.A.

But cast and crew kept their ties to Vancouver -- Mr. Carter still has a home in the city and Mr. Duchovny has filmed two movies here since The X-Files headed south.

Co-writer mr. Spotnitz said the new script was written specifically for locations in Vancouver and Pemberton, where they filmed for three weeks. As with the series, the B.C. locations stand in for places in the U.S. The producers showed reporters a trailer for the new movie with Ms. Anderson, Mr. Duchovny and shaggy co-star Billy Connolly searching a snowy field with dogs and sticks for some unspecified monster.

The new story picks up with the main characters in real time, six years after the events of the series. Mr. Duchovny, who left the series the year before it wrapped, said he always wanted The X-Files to become a feature franchise.

"This is a great, flawed, questing hero -- there's always more stories for that person to be involved in," said the actor, who now stars in another TV series, the dysfunctional-sex comedy Californication.

He brought his children with actress wife Tea Leoni to stay in Whistler during this latest working trip.

"I do consider Vancouver one of the three cities I've lived in in my my life," Mr. Duchovny said. "It is a home away from home."

[Sleepless]

Crappy trailer link

[MacGuffin]

Carter Offers X-Files Spoiler
Source: SciFi Wire

Chris Carter, who co-wrote and directed the upcoming X-Files sequel film, offered fans a few tantalizing spoilers for the movie, while his writing partner, Frank Spotnitz, said it would remain true to the show's mythology even though it is a stand-alone story.

In a panel at the William S. Paley Television Festival in Hollywood on March 26, Carter told fans that they will learn bit about what happened to William, the baby of Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson), who was given up for adoption in the show's ninth and final season. "It will not go unconsidered in the movie," Carter said.

Carter also revealed why the sequel still does not have a title. "I can't tell you [what it is]," Carter said in response to a question. "Because I don't know, really. I know what I want it to be, but Fox has ideas of their own. And I know what it should be."

Spotnitz said that the movie will pick up the story of Mulder and Scully six years after the events in the show's finale, which aired in 2002. "In the movie, we wanted it to work for non-fans as well as fans," Spotnitz said. "But we were determined for the fans to honor all the work that these guys did on the series and all the love that people had for the show over the years. And so I think you'll see that, while this not a mythology movie, it's true to everything that's come before. It's true to Mulder and Scully, who they are, where they would be at this point in their lives and all of the experiences that they've had."

Neither Carter nor Spotnitz would offer many details about the sequel's storyline. But Carter admitted it derives some its story from the idea the duo had for a sequel movie to be shot immediately after the series ended.

"It's the story we wanted to do," Carter said, adding: "We went to the length of working out the story [in 2002]. And then there was this lawsuit that got in the way. And years went by. ... [Finally,] I got a call from my lawyers: 'The lawsuit's been resolved.' 'Great!' And then the phone is ringing. Fox is like, 'Let's make a movie!' 'Great!'"

That was last year. When Carter went to Spotnitz to find the index cards with the original sequel story idea, they had disappeared, Carter said. "And it was the best thing that could have happened," he said. "Because I think that the story that we came up with now, the movie we just did, is superior to the story that we had. And it made us work harder."

Carter said that the production wrapped principal photography on the sequel about 10 days ago in Vancouver, Canada. The movie opens July 25.

Carter also revealed that he has mulled a movie based on his other TV series, Millennium, which starred Lance Henriksen. "We've talked about that over the years," he said. "Lance would love to do it. I don't know if it would ever get done. It's a long shot. It would be fun. I have ideas about how to do it."

[diggler]

newer bootlegged teaser

edit: damn, removed already

[edison]

newer bootlegged teaser

edit: damn, removed already

here for now

[diggler]

[MacGuffin]

'X-Files' fans get a taste of the 2008 sequel
Creator Chris Carter isn't forthcoming with any plot details for X-Philes fans who filled the Cinerama Dome.
By Greg Braxton, Los Angeles Times

You must remember this: A kiss is just a kiss -- unless, that is, it's a kiss between paranormal investigators Fox Mulder and Dana Scully projected larger than life on the giant screen of the Cinerama Dome.

That kiss -- a highlight from "The X-Files" -- became a lightning bolt that sparked squeals of delight from many jammed into the historic theater for a retrospective tribute to the Fox drama, which centered on the adventures of two FBI agents exploring the supernatural and the unexplainable. The series, which starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, ended in 2002 after nine seasons.

Mulder and Scully -- or rather, Duchovny and Anderson -- were not present during the fete Wednesday night, part of the 25th annual William S. Paley Television Festival sponsored by the Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television & Radio). But that didn't dampen the enthusiasm of the so-called X-Philes, sitting in rapt attention while series creator Chris Carter, executive producer Frank Spotnitz and other writers and directors from the series unveiled some of the mysteries behind the monsters, strange doings and ominous atmosphere that distinguished the show.

Giving the event an extra jolt was a look at the trailer for the "X-Files" movie that comes out July 25. The rapid-fire preview gave few clues to the plot or characters, except that Mulder and Scully, who went from platonic partners to a more romantic level in the later seasons, still call each other Mulder and Scully (apparently intimacy did not put them on a first-name basis). There is a lot of running and loud music, snow and, of course, the ghostly six-note whistle that was the core of the show's theme song.

The film, a sequel of sorts to the first "X-Files" movie that came out in 1998, doesn't even have a title. "I know what the title should be," quipped Carter, noting that Fox may have other ideas. The audience was so juiced by the trailer that it was shown twice.

In development in various degrees since the show ended, the movie will take up six years after the conclusion of the series, Carter said, and attempts to honor longtime fans while reaching out to those unfamiliar with the show. He declined to specify the nature of the relationship between Mulder and Scully when the movie starts.

"It's a stand-alone movie, but it's not negligent or insensitive to the fact that there is a history there, and there has been a passage of time with Mulder and Scully," Carter said.

Still, much of the focus of the event was on the past. Also appearing on the panel were actors Mitch Pileggi, who played FBI Asst. Director Walter Skinner; Nicholas Lea, who played Agent Alex Krycek, and Dean Hagland, one of the Lone Gunmen who helped Mulder and Scully and were the stars of their own short-lived spinoff.

"It's just nice to see how well the show is remembered," Spotnitz said. Carter, who periodically took out a camera to take pictures of the adoring throng, added that he "never had a good sense of how popular the show was because I was too busy trying to make deadlines."

At its height, "The X-Files" was not merely a hit but also a phenomenon that helped establish Fox as a credible network. Its influence is evident in shows such as "Lost" and "Heroes." It made stars of Duchovny and Anderson.

Although the series featured more than its share of alien stories, monsters and twisted government conspiracies, the relationship between the agents registered a humanity and humor that scored with a broad viewership, particularly women. Females made up a large portion of the audience Wednesday.

After the series ended, Carter said he took a long break and even avoided watching old episodes. He said the series was "all-consuming, and getting away from it gave me a healthy perspective on life. At the end, I found my wife again."

He also pursued other interests, including getting a pilot's license.

"I challenged myself artistically, physically and intellectually. It was really great."

[MacGuffin]

X-Files Folks Offer Hints
Carter and Spotnitz on Mulder and Scully's return.

At the recent Paley Festival X-Files reunion/tribute, I had the chance to speak one on one with both Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz about the upcoming new X-Files sequel. Carter, who wrote and directed the upcoming film, said that reuniting to make the film "was strange, but it was actually as natural as can be." Co-writer Spotnitz added, "It's amazing. I've just come off filming the movie for the last three months. To revisit characters who were gone is such a unique opportunity in Hollywood – to have a chance to come back to people like this."

It's known that the film is a stand-alone story, not tying into the overreaching mythology stories the series also did. Carter explained that with the new film "We knew we wanted to do something that wasn't a mythology episode. We'd kind of wrapped up the mythology, to a large extent, in the series. So I think, especially coming back a number of years later, the best thing to do would be to reintroduce The X-Files to its core audience, but also maybe introduce it to a lot of people who haven't had a chance to see it before, who were maybe too young to see it before. I talk to college kids now who were too young fifteen years ago [when the series began], and if you're 22 years old and in college, you were just a kid. So I think there are lots of kids who didn't see it. "

Of course, the big question is if the film isn't about the alien/government conspiracy plotline, what is it about? When I asked Carter if he could tell us about the plot, he replied "I can't, really, because nobody really wants to know. The truth is everybody wants to go and have a great experience. They want to be surprised and they want to be scared and if the cat gets out of the bag, there's no putting it back in."

While still not offering specifics, Spotnitz did tell us this about the film: "It's scary. It's about Mulder and Scully, very much. It's about them and their relationship and who they are and it's a personal and emotional movie too, in a way that the series rarely could be, because we're not doing 24 episodes - we're just doing this one standalone movie. And it's designed to reward fans. It certainly touches upon things that fans alone will appreciate. But [it's also designed] to work for people who never saw The X-Files - who were too young. That's what's most exciting, honestly, is the chance to introduce these characters to a new generation."

The show ended with Mulder and Scully's legal status in a highly problematic place, and Spotnitz promised that would not be ignored in the film. "We had to and we wanted to address everything that a fan would say 'Well, what about that?' I think we've done that without excluding anybody who never saw the show," Spotnitz explained, adding, "If you remember, in the first movie there was a scene in a bar where Mulder sort of drunkenly explains who he is. We've done it in a very different way this time around, but I think we've managed to make it work both for people who are familiar and who are unfamiliar."

There are three actors new to the X-Files franchise who are said to have notable roles in the film, including Amanda Peet, rapper Xzibit and Scottish comedian Billy Connolly. Spotnitz discussed each of these actors, explaining "Amanda Peet is an FBI agent, as is Xzibit. In Amanda Peet, we were looking for somebody who was Scully-like in a way – that intelligence, that intensity, that authority that Gillian Anderson naturally commands, so Amanda we thought, especially after seeing her in Studio 60 on television, we thought she was great for this role. Xzibit was just a discovery for us. We knew his music, but we didn't realize what a great actor he was. He's really fantastic. He's another FBI agent. I don't think you would picture him as an FBI agent normally. But he's really quite good."

Spotnitz continued, "Billy Connolly was the one person we had in mind before we wrote. We'd been fans of his... he's a very well known comedian in the UK, but we just love him as a dramatic actor. He'd done this movie Mrs. Brown, maybe ten years ago. This is not a funny role at all – I don't think there's a single laugh. It's a very dramatic, creepy role, central to the movie, and we wrote it for him and were able to get him. That was a dream come true for us."

So might this be the beginning of a new series of X-Files movies? When asked that question, Spotnitz replied "Hopefully! That would be nice. We had such a good time doing it, it would be nice to keep going."

[MacGuffin]

`X-Files' movie title is out there: `I Want to Believe'

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The truth is finally out there about the new "X-Files" movie title.

The second big-screen spinoff of the paranormal TV adventure will be called "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," Chris Carter, the series' creator and the movie's director and co-writer, told The Associated Press.

Distributor 20th Century Fox signed off on the title Wednesday.

The title is a familiar phrase for fans of the series that starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents chasing after aliens and supernatural happenings. "I Want to Believe" was the slogan on a poster Duchovny's UFO-obsessed agent Fox Mulder had hanging in the cluttered basement office where he and Anderson's Dana Scully worked.

"It's a natural title," Carter said in a telephone interview Tuesday during a break from editing the film. "It's a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. `I Want to Believe.' It really does suggest Mulder's struggle with his faith."

"I Want to Believe" comes 10 years after the first film and six years after the finale of the series, whose opening credits for much of its nine-year run featured the catch-phrase "the truth is out there."

Due in theaters July 25, the movie will not deal with aliens or the intricate mythology about interaction between humans and extraterrestrials that the show built up over the years, Carter said.

Instead, it casts Mulder and Scully into a stand-alone, earth-bound story aimed at both serious "X-Files" fans and newcomers, he said.

"It has struck me over the last several years talking to college-age kids that a lot of them really don't know the show or haven't seen it," Carter said. "If you're 20 years old now, the show started when you were 4. It was probably too scary for you or your parents wouldn't let you watch it. So there's a whole new audience that might have liked the show. This was made to, I would call it, satisfy everyone."

Hardcore fans need not worry that the movie will be going back to square one, though, Carter said. The movie will be true to the spirit of the show and everything Mulder and Scully went through, he said.

"The reason we're even making the movie is for the rabid fans, so we don't want to insult them by having to take them back through the concept again," Carter said.

Carter said he settled on "I Want to Believe" from the time he and co-writer Frank Spotnitz started on the screenplay. It took so long to go public with it because studio executives wanted to make sure it was a marketable title, he said.

The filmmakers have kept the story tightly under wraps to prevent plot spoilers from leaking on the Internet, a phenomenon that barely existed when the first movie came out in 1998.

"We went to almost comical lengths to keep the story a secret," Carter said. "That included allowing only the key crew members to read the script, and they had to read it in a room that had video cameras trained on them. It was a new experience."

[Sleepless]

Well that's real original 

[MacGuffin]

New Trailer

[Kal]

terrible trailer. i was excited about the film BEFORE i watched it.