The X-Files: I Want to Believe

[MacGuffin]

New Trailer here.

[Sleepless]

Now that's a trailer.

Still doesn't look like a serious contender to standard summer fare though. They should have released this later in the year for it to have performed better. I still really looking forward to this, and will be there opening day.

Worst comes to worst, it's not going to be as big a disappointment as Indiana Jones. I think it's gonna be fun

[MacGuffin]

Chris Carter film is covert operation
'X-Files' creator quietly working on a dark drama
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Chris Carter, the creator of "The X-Files," knows a thing or two about secrets. So it's no surprise that he has managed to keep his latest film project under wraps for so long.

Carter is in the midst of directing "Fencewalker," a dark drama starring several up-and-comers, including "The Tudors" star Natalie Dormer; David Cassidy's daughter, Katie Cassidy; rapper-turned-actor Xzibit; and Derek Magyar and Meckah Brooks.

Neither Carter's reps at ICM nor the actors' reps would confirm that the film is shooting, but the story is essentially a coming-of-age semiautobiographical character piece with no supernatural elements. (After "X-Files," Carter created the similarly spooky series "Millennium," which ran for three seasons on Fox.)

The feature is shooting in the Los Angeles area, including in Carter's hometown of Bellflower.

Carter wrote the script for what is thought to be his passion project some time ago and raised the financing himself. The film has a modest budget and no distributor at this point.

Dormer appeared in 2005's "Casanova," while Cassidy was a regular on TV's "Supernatural." Xzibit appears in Carter's upcoming "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," while Magyar is in post on the horror thriller "Train."

The veil of secrecy surrounding "Fencewalker" is not only in keeping with Carter's persona but also reminiscent of the shroud that surrounded J.J. Abrams' "Cloverfield."

[MacGuffin]

Chris Carter gets all foxy about 'The X-Files'
When facing questions about the film, the writer-director turns into one of his own mystery men.
By Gina McIntyre, Los Angeles Times

CHRIS CARTER is not the sort of guy you'd expect to produce shadowy stories about government conspiracies and alien invasions. Even as he's hard at work finishing "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" -- a new feature film based on the landmark science-fiction franchise he masterminded in the 1990s -- he's the embodiment of a relaxed California surfer, thoughtful and easygoing rather than tense and paranoid.

The deadline to deliver his cut of the film to the studio is looming, but inside a cozy Malibu residence, he's calm and deliberate, watching scenes with a critical eye and decisively directing editor Richard A. Harris to alter a particular sequence to enhance its rhythm and pacing.

The scene on the monitors is one that will later appear in trailers for the film, due to open July 25. Looking surprisingly untouched by age over the last several years, special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson), her signature red tresses grown out past her shoulders, stand amid a snow-covered landscape talking with a mysterious man with shaggy gray hair played by Scottish actor Billy Connolly. Something unsettling is taking place, but what, exactly?

Carter won't comment. In fact, neither he nor Frank Spotnitz, the series' former show runner and the movie's producer, will reveal anything about the film -- except that, chronologically, it picks up six years after the series ended in 2002 and is a stand-alone story that they very much hope will please fans of the show while also appealing to a new audience. Amanda Peet and Xhibit costar, and the film is rated PG-13, with Carter making assurances that it is both "smart and scary."

But what's the nature of Mulder and Scully's relationship? "You'll have to watch the movie." Is it safe to say there are other actors from the series who appear in the film? "It's not safe to say. There may be." Are there plans for more "X-Files" features? "We'll have to do a good job on this one."

Interestingly enough, though, the policy of remaining tight-lipped goes beyond speaking to journalists. Before shooting began in December, only a handful of people -- Carter and Spotnitz, Duchovny and Anderson, a few select 20th Century Fox executives -- had laid eyes on Carter's script. And before doing so, they were required to sign nondisclosure agreements. During production, the heads of the various below-the-line departments were not given their own copies; instead, they were required to go into a locked room with a video camera if they needed to revisit something from the screenplay.

Roughly 90% of the crew never was allowed to see a copy for fear that the top-secret story line would be leaked. Even the sides, small pages with dialogue from a scene being filmed on a particular day, were collected and destroyed after that day's shooting.

Area 51 doesn't have this kind of security.

"We're very good about being paranoid," Spotnitz concedes with a laugh.

Revisiting a cultural phenomenon

IT'S A risky strategy. For a time in the mid-1990s, "The X-Files" was one of those ubiquitous pop culture flash points, collecting critical accolades and attracting a rabid fan following obsessed with the characters at the center of the show. Mulder was a man driven to believe in "extreme possibilities," with Scully acting as his foil, a medical doctor who clings to reason and science and treats her partner with respect but also a healthy dose of skepticism. Their rapport remained constant despite a sprawling story line that at various points involved alien abductions, shadowy government conspiracies, otherworldly bounty hunters and black gummy substances, clones, shape-shifters and a two-headed monster with a passion for Cher.

"The show brought a cinematic quality to episodic television that was lacking," Duchovny said recently. "The story ideas, week by week, were movie-worthy for the most part. And the style of acting was not campy. For the genre fans, who had followed many shows without those ambitions, it was less 'We love to love this show' as it was 'We love this show.' "

The series was, on any number of levels, groundbreaking, not least for spinning off a feature film, 1998's "The X-Files: Fight the Future," in the middle of its prime-time run -- the movie received largely satisfactory reviews and topped out at the U.S. box office at just more than $85 million.

But by the time "The X-Files" ended in 2002, Duchovny and Anderson had made no secret of their readiness to move on, and new special agents played by Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish essentially had taken over as the series' leads. Particularly after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, audiences seemed less interested in watching stories built on the idea that the American government is deliberately deceiving the citizenry, a theory that the declining ratings seemed to bear out.

By then, Carter was exhausted. Looking for creative and personal renewal, he decided to pursue the host of interests he'd shelved while working not just on "The X-Files" but also on such other science-fiction-tinged programs as "Millennium," "Harsh Realm" and "The Lone Gunmen," a short-lived "X-Files" spinoff based on three computer nerds who aided Mulder and Scully from time to time.

"I actually made a point of not watching the show on TV during my time away and doing as much as I could that wasn't 'X-Files' oriented," Carter says. "For me, it was 10 years of output, and I needed input."

The Bellflower native climbed mountains and spent time with "big thinkers" at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara. He also became a licensed pilot. "Learning to fly an airplane taught me a way of thinking, an approach to problem-solving that was applicable and effective," he says. "Pilots are very methodical and meticulous, and artists tend not to be."

What lured him back from the skies was Duchovny -- and slightly more mundane matters. In the middle of last year, right around the time the actor convinced Carter that it might be time to resurrect the franchise, a lawsuit Carter had filed against 20th Century Fox Television over payments allegedly owed to him was settled, paving the way for a second "X-Files" movie.

"I came back because David was very interested in doing this movie; I came back because Frank had a long talk with me, and he was convincing. I came back largely because there was enthusiasm," Carter offers. "And Fox called and said, 'If you want to do this movie, it's now or never.' With all that incentive, I was convinced that it wasn't going back, it was going forward, and [it was an] opportunity to actually reconsider 'The X-Files' not just for me but for the audience, for the fans."

He returned to a story idea that had emerged in 2003 and completed a script ahead of the Writers Guild of America strike last November. Additionally, Carter stepped behind the camera to direct the film, shot during the winter largely on location in Pemberton and Vancouver, Canada.

It was another in what he calls "a series of new opportunities" -- he had directed a number of episodes of the show but never a movie before. He says he's not necessarily looking to reinvent himself as a feature film director, nor is he all that concerned if people continue to associate him most closely with "The X-Files."

"It's a natural thing to be labeled," he says. "It's my big success. There's no getting away from that. If I wanted people to take me seriously as something else, it's my responsibility to go out and do something else."

Compared to those Manhattan gals

FOR THE time being, "The X-Files" is the only thing on his mind. Several weeks after an initial meeting, the movie is finished, and it is still shrouded in secrecy. In the interim, "Sex and the City" demonstrated that a much-loved television series can relaunch on the big screen after years away from the public eye and be met with the sort of enthusiastic response that virtually guarantees sequels, although it's difficult to draw too many inferences from that film's performance.

"Sex and the City" succeeded not just because interest in the characters was high but because it served as an event for female moviegoers whose interests often go overlooked in the summer months.

Audiences also had vague ideas about what actually was going to happen in the movie. "X-Files" has more competition, especially with the moody, brainy "The Dark Knight" opening one week before its release and going after the same core group of older men. That said, the movie is creating buzz online, with fan sites devoted to the sequel carefully analyzing the trailers and hypothesizing about whether Mulder and Scully will wind up together.

Carter puts only so much stock in comparisons, preferring instead to believe that if he and the other creative principals have crafted a sufficiently compelling story, the audience, as they say, will be out there.

"I don't think people go to the movies saying, 'Oh, I liked that television show from the '90s, I'm going to like this one,' " he says. "I think they go to the movies to be entertained or to be scared or to be moved, and that's why I hope they're going to see this movie."

[MacGuffin]

[Sleepless]

Is that the British poster? It's awful.

[modage]

I Want To Believe This Film Isn't Going To Suck
things are not looking so hopeful.

[hedwig]

I Want To Make Love To David Duchovny

[Jeremy Blackman]

Minor spoilers, not really plot-related.

Since this isn't a conspiracy movie, I wasn't expecting much... and I didn't get much. It's basically a slightly below-average episode extended to feature length. The basic problem with the film is that it's sharply divided between the mystery-solving/pursuit/suspense scenes and the Mulder/Scully relationship scenes. The former being skillfully executed in true X-Files fashion with sufficient creepiness, and the latter being unimaginative, recycled, ham-handed, and utterly pointless. Nothing new develops in this movie. They could have done something great with a new X-Files movie, but I fear they've missed their chance.

[ᾦɐļᵲʊʂ]

Resp to JB, so it may contain spoilers


From Chris Carter's interview with avclub:

The former being skillfully executed in true X-Files fashion with sufficient creepiness, and the latter being unimaginative, recycled, ham-handed, and utterly pointless.

It goes right back to the time we started talking about—it's really been 16 years since the show first aired. There are kids in college now who never saw The X-Files, because they were too young, or their parents didn't let them watch it. So I think you need to reintroduce the show, the idea, and the characters to a new audience. And I don't think you can do it with a mythology episode. I think it's best done with a standalone story. But we're mindful of the characters, and the history they have together, and of that mythology, and how it relates to their personal histories. So there is, I would call it, an aspect of mythology in the show only because the characters produce that mythology.

They could have done something great with a new X-Files movie, but I fear they've missed their chance.

There were 202 episodes of The X- Files. I think it was time to finish when we finished, but I think that there's still a fan base out there. And they're the reasons for me to do it again. And also David Duchovny was anxious to do another movie, as was Gillian. And it just seemed like Fox came to us and said "now or never," so "now" was probably the best answer.

I know that doesn't exactly speak for the quality of the film, which I'll be catching ASAP, but at least some possible solutions as to why it may be lacking, or may have come off from a different angle than usual.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Thanks. That does explain it, more or less, except for the pointlessness part.

(Not that any explanation would make the movie any better, unless some mindblowing secret meaning were revealed...)

[modage]

this was bad.  which is especially unfortunate when you've already invested 10 years in these characters and watching it knowing this is now the last time you will ever see them. 

[diggler]

watching all of these reviews surface has got to be one of the most depressing things i've ever experience as a moviegoer

how do you make a boring x files movie?!?

[Jeremy Blackman]

this was bad.  which is especially unfortunate when you've already invested 10 years in these characters and watching it knowing this is now the last time you will ever see them. 

That's what I mean when I say I fear they've missed their chance. I hope it's not true.

[Sleepless]

Spoilers inevitably follow:

I would be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed when I walked out of the cinema last night. Six years and this is what they came up with? True, I didn't know what to expect, but it certainly wasn't this...

However, now that I've had the best part of a day to think it over, I like this film more and more in retrospect. It's not the kind of film most people would imagine when they think of an X-Files movie. It was much more of an intimate movie, obviously focusing on the religious/philosophical elements which Chris Carter has always been most interested in. At the beginning of the film I was caught off-guard by the woman being attacked intercut with the FBI search team. I kept thinking there was going to be some sort of big pay off there, that the woman fended off her attackers because she had some sort of supernatural power. Or maybe both she and her attackers encountered some sort of bizarre phenomenon as she tried to flee from them. But no, that was the set up. It took me a while to accept that. I kept thinking some sort of big plot point was coming up which was going to show me what this story was about, but - probably largely because of my own expectations - I missed what was right in front of my face, as subtle as it was.

The best comparison I can give you is the episodes of the TV show 'Beyond The Sea' and 'The Field Where I Died'. Like this new film, both deal with big philosophical concepts. The "phenomenon" element of the film is the character of Father Joe, a psychic who claims to have visions associated with the case being investigated. The case itself is very mundane, and not unlike something you might see simply on CSI or the like, at least until the film's third act. Rather the case is used simply as a catalyst for Mulder and Scully to encounter Father Joe, and then to argue over whether or not his visions are indeed genuine, or whether he has some sort of connection to the case himself. And, if his visions are genuine, is he receiving them for the power of good... or something else?

One thought I had whilst watching the film was of an interview I recently read with Chris Carter. I'm not sure if it was posted on here, but I think it was in the July/August issue of Creative Screenwriting. He talked about an idea they had for the show for years, but which they never did because they couldn't figure out how to do it. The idea concerned a man who dies and goes to hell, but then he is resuscitated and brought back to life. But from then on he knows that there actually *is* a life after death, and that he is destined to go to hell. The ideas explored in this film are similarly difficult to put into a visual narrative, but in a way they are successfully dealt with, however - it's not what I expected for the first X-Files outing since the series ended.

I was curious as to what other long-standing X-Philes made of it, and wanted to hear lots of heavily-biased hype checked out a couple of message boards this morning. It seems a lot of them weren't satisfied. I imagine many of the complaints people have are similar to what other people have said on here. For a start, yes, the film is divided quite distinctly divided between "the investigation" and "Mulder and Scully's relationship" (with of course a side-line into Scully's work as a doctor which neatly and predictably ties back into the investigation). Whilst this device was probably devised to please hard-core fans of the Mulder-Scully relationship, it does seem to have backfired somewhat. Parts are too cutesy, and it takes about 30 minutes into the film before we actually realize the true nature of their current relationship. Even the fan-pleasing cameo of Skinner seems a bit off-kilter with the rest of the film. And I'm not even going to go into the post-credits sequence...

Overall, despite my initial disappointment I have decided, in retrospect that I did really like this film. At the end of the day I remain a huge fan of X-Files, and this film deserves my unconditional love far more than that over idol from my past which resurfaced earlier this year, a certain Dr. Jones. I'm going to give it another day or two to muse on this some more, at which point I'll probably write my blog on it which I'll repost here.

I look forward to what other X-Philes on these boards think.