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New X-Files Movie
An anonymous reader writes to let us know that a new X-Files movie is in pre-production, directed and written by Chris Carter and starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Duchovny said in an interview that his understanding is that filming will start in November for a summer 2008 release. The article notes that in an earlier interview, Anderson said the film "would stay away from the series' (and first film's) sometimes tortured mythology" (quoting the article, not Anderson).
I want to believe!
Don't mod me, bro'!!!!
Ok, so if the 2nd movie will be staying away from the "tortured mythology" of the series and the first movie.... how is it an X-Files movie?
God help us if this turns into some John Cusak-esque romantic comedy (with a dash of aliens).
Had a geekgasm!
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
...that was tortured.
Gillian Anderson has got to be pretty old by now. The fun may be gone.
Table-ized A.I.
a movie about the return of the sideshow freaks might be good.
and a high probability of a good soundtrack.
Part of the fun of the original series was the non-closure (no solid proof or clarity) and the tension between believer and skeptic. They drifted away from this later in the series, and even the first movie. At the end of the series, Scully became the believer and the new guy the skeptic, but it never quite worked right. For one, there was no sense of sexual tension between the new dude and Scully like there was in the original pair.
Table-ized A.I.
You'll have to wait until 1/18/08 for a Lost movie...well, you might get a Lost movie, anyway.
Oh wait, was I suppose to put a spoiler alert first?
For a start: the story actually goes somewhere in Lost. They actually did some story writing ahead of time instead of just tossing out some meaningless obscure crap every now and then. The suspense in Lost means something because you know it's eventually going to be dealt with, and that the story will change dramatically and in not entirely predictable ways. Lost can seem cheesy at times, but overall it has much more depth than x-files could ever hope to have.
"Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
As someone who shares a flat with an avid X-Files (or more correctly Gillian Anderson) fan, I've been hearing rumours about this for, oh, at least two years now. And even now it sounds as though the script hasn't even been finalised yet, and they might not have all the funding they require at this point. Because the series finished so long ago, and (even according to a significant portion of fans) lost it's way over the final couple of series I think this movie is going to be a hard sell for a mainstream audience. Which I think will result in budgeting problems for the producers, which could mean delays or the filming not even being completed. I'd love to seen another X-Files outing, (and not just to watch my flat mate explode in the ecstasy of a celluloid Anderson experience) however I'm a very long way from getting my hopes up.
So what's the point, other than to cash in on the franchise? Way bother to have an X-files move if you don't folow the X-files back story in it? It would be like taking some scifi space move that was completely unrelater to the star trek universe, casting a couple of aging trek actors, and slappimg the Star Trek name on it.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Meh. I never really liked Fox Mulder, Dana Scully was hot initially, but over time she got older, and whinier, and then the whole hooking up with Fox, and the child and the.... oh man, totally sucked the hot right out and replaced it with booooring.
An X-Files movie would be great. But you don't need Fox or Dana to do it. Fresh faces, fresh talent, less annoying. Although, if they could get W. B. Davis back as the C.S.M in a major plot part that would be fine by me, I liked that guy. It could be a pre-quel, before the X-Files, examining some aspect of the origins of the whole back story. That'd be cool.
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Ah, but Lost reaches a mainstream audience, whereas today X-Files is predominantly for geeks. And this is Slashdot.
But Lost has ended now. They made it off the island and lived non-happily ever after.
You'll have to wait until 1/18/08 for a Lost movie...well, you might get a Lost movie, anyway.
Eh, they "lost" the Lost movie. Well, it joins the Apollo 11 footage I guess.
Table-ized A.I.
How about... Just get lost?
What? IMNSHO, Lost stinks of focus groups and cash-cow milking. It's been treading water since the first season; since then, they've thrown out a new scrap of mythology every couple of episodes, which more often than not bears no reference to what came before (eg the six toed statue), while spending the rest of the time on pointless flashbacks and love triangles.
The X-Files had a planned story arc that should have lasted seven seasons; stupidly, Chris Carter let himself be bribed, and tried to extend things for another couple of seasons. For those first seven seasons, things did go somewhere with the X-Files; mythology was built by adding information about the conspirators, the alien invaders, the black oil. That mythology is the main reason why X-Files was so good.
The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
If not for the "tortured mythology" the series would have been nothing but "vampire" episodes. PLEASE, give us the tortured mythology!
Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
bitch is old. Fuck, NP is old too.
Here's hoping there's a hermione upskirt shot in the next Harry Potter movie....
My god, you're trusting. Did you ever watch Alias, JJ Abrams' previous series? It had a lot of mysterious backstory, involving the magical Rambaldi devices and several -- I lost count -- rival secret spy organisations, and everybody related to and alternately saving or betraying each other. It ended in a disappointing, confused pile of nonsense worse than the X-Files finale.
If Abrams has an ending planned, it's going to use a lot of "it was just a dream/illusion" etc, to paper over the cracks.
Welcome back, Miss Anderson. We miss you... Oops, sorry, wrong movie quote.
At the end of the series, we're waiting for the alien apocalypse (or *something* significant*) in 2012. Mulder and Scully are finally together. Everything's pointing towards an end of the world scenario, and they're going to give us a MotW? Why bother? Unless, of course, there's a third movie planned to cover the events in 2012... or X-Files 2 is a Jose Chung-style "episode." That I'd pay to see. It'd be great to see Mulder back on the screen - he was missed during S8&9 - but honestly, I'd prefer a new mythology ep.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
All the conspiracy stuff with the aliens and the cigarette man and all that was always the least interesting part of the show, IMO.
I was always disappointed when a new episode came on and I could see it was going to be one of "those" episodes. I'd just turn the TV off and go do something else.
The best episodes were the one-off stories, like the inbred farm boys or the tapeworm man, etc. All that alien conspiracy crap was just tripe, as far as I'm concerned.
If you want consistently "hot" women then try watching porn, that's what it's for.
Scully's character was very complex and brought a vital part of the main dynamic of the x-files (faith/spirituality versus objectivity/rationality) to life. On matters of the paranormal, she represented science and objectivity against Mulder's sometimes irrational desire to believe. Yet on matters of spirituality, she supported religion in the face of Mulder's skepticism. Over time their roles would intertwine, invert, and revert. When Mulder left and Agent Doggett took over, Scully became the 'Mulder' type character with a belief in the paranormal and Doggett the unbeliever.
In summary: Scully was/is a great and interesting character who drove the series beyond the usual two-dimensional sci-fi claptrap. If you stopped watching because she isn't "hot" to your standards, then you are a fool of the highest order. I note that you did not make similar remarks about Duchovny's character, when he has aged quite a bit too (apart from his hands, which remain perfect).
Read Pynchon.
never watched alias.... now you've got me worrying :( He did at least promise that it wouldn't be a "it was all a dream" or a "they're already dead" ending, but it is difficult to tell what sort of ending could tie everything up. I haven't been disappointed so far, so I'm holding out hope.
"Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
Yes, because people watched Alias for the story. We watched it because of Jennifer Garner's curves.
There has always been a big division amongst fans.
Myself, I have always loved the conspiracy arc in the x-files, and I know a lot of others who feel the same way. Although it got rather convoluted with the bees and so on, some parts of it (such as Tunguska and all that stuff with Krycek, and the shifting role of the Cancer Man/X/Deep Throat/Bill Mulder) were fascinating and were definitely what kept me tuning in week after week.
Yet some people hated that stuff, and loved the "locals tell of the mythical swamp monster... and here it is!!!!11!!!1!" type episodes, the "monster of the week" as someone called it here (also "serial killer of the week" at times). Personally I feel like those episodes were frequently poorly done, and the sfx never really carried the silly plotlines adequately. There are some notable exceptions of course (I loved the Loch Ness Monster episode, but of course that was great mostly because they never show the thing).
Of course some of the better episodes had a bit of both - a "monster of the week" which turned out to be part of the broader conspiracy arc, or segued into it.
My perception is that more hard core fans tend to prefer the aliens, casual fans prefer the wolf-man stuff. Maybe it's an attention span thing too. It will be a shame if the new episode does nothing to move the conspiracy arc forward - of course, it may well be set earlyish in the series, rather than at the end.
Read Pynchon.
It's too late for that, we all know who you are Deep Throat!
"Laugh while you can a-monkey boy!" - Dr Emilio Lizardo
Oh, dear gods, not Alias...
Started off as a spy series, then turned into a bloody soap opera.
I have never seen an episode of Lost, but now I have no desire to check it out. At all.
Ignore this signature. By order.
The last episode tied up all loose ends, and said pretty much everything that they needed to say, IMHO. Not only that, I also felt that the X Files was only really sociologically relevant to the 90s, as well...I think pop culture is well and truly over the paranormal/ufology in general. The Greys have more than had their 15 minutes.
X-Files stopped being cool after the first few seasons. It was at its best when the series focussed on unrelated weird stuff every episode. In the later seasons it basically became a big soap opera with aliens. I stopped watching when it got to the point where missing an episode or two meant you had no idea what was going on for the rest of the season.
Maybe not
But the MPAA still sucks...right?
What?
"Laugh while you can a-monkey boy!" - Dr Emilio Lizardo
Scully and Reyes Sex scene now we are talking Box Office Gold.
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Duchovny already stated this on a late night show interview quite awhile back. Why is this new news?
can come close to David Duchovny to play the role of Fox mulder. Gillian Anderson as 'old' as she is, plays the perfect role as well. Intelligent, skeptic, yet unable to poke holes into Fox Mulder's theories. For me, X-Files ended when Duchovny left. It will resume again in this movie. I found the first movie excellent, of high caliber, big production and not cheezy whatsoever.
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I really did like the first soundtrack a whole lot. Right down to the crazy "Crystal Ship" mix and the reggae-esque song "Invisible Sun". If they can come anywhere near that type of quality on this soundtrack, I'll get it regardless of if I see the movie or not(ok, so there's no way I won't see an x-files movie).
... time to get my drink on /.?)
(heh, my Captcha word is 'snifter'
If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
Abrams hasn't really had anything to do with Lost since the pilot, so it isn't fair to compare Lost to Abram's earlier works.
Alias seemed to have a metaplot planned for several seasons, but the studio execs hated the whole Rumbaldi thing, by season 4 they ditched the whole serial/cliffhanger thing and even aired episodes out of order. Eventually it became a lame spy/action series with the overall plot taking a back seat, and even completely contradicting itself as Sydney becoming pregnant with no explanation after all her eggs were removed. Whatever was originally planned for Alias never reached fruition. Abrams walked away from the show after three seasons, got bored, and let other people deal with the mess.
Carlton and Cuse however have masterfully minded Lost since day 1. They have said that no doubt no ending can satisfy the fans, and some people will inevitably be let down when all the answers are laid on the table, but they have promised there will be no cheap tricks. No purgatory. No dreams. No zombies popping up.
I'm grateful for that. Lost may be the best show I've ever seen on television, and with each passing season, I fall in love with it even more, even if there are stretches for a few episodes here and there that I don't enjoy as much. It is certainly the most ambitious story I've ever seen told on television. And while I enjoyed X-Files a great deal, it is unfair to compare the two.
X-Files had plenty of filler with monster-of-the-week episodes, and in the end, didn't have the much plot. You can sum up the main conspiracy plot in a paragraph or two. The show lived on atmosphere, and the charisma of the two leads. A similiar premise without such charisma is bound to come across as lame and fail. Night Stalker and Supernatural.
I own the entire run of X-Files on DVD, but Lost is a very different beast. It really is.
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Alias and Lost are night and day different. Alias was JJ's child for three years. Lost is something that JJ, Carlton and Cuse invented together, but JJ hasn't touched since the pilot episode. Really, JJ has practically nothing to do with Lost.
Lost is the most well thought out show I've ever seen. It isn't a soap opera, and the story is huge. I honestly am amazed that someone is attempting to tell a story of this scale and caliber on television. The show gets deeper and better the more you go along, but do yourself a favor. You can get the episodes of bittorrent, or iTunes for like $2 a pop. Get the full pilot (may be broken up into two episodes) and, I believe it is one or two more episodes after that when they get into Locke's backstory. You're investing maybe 3 hours of your time, but if after that point you're not amazed and in love, I don't know what to tell you.
Many people, even those who have lost patience for the show still insist it is the best pilot in TV history, and there is a moment in Locke's first episode that often blows people away. It is really good stuff.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Age aside, I lost my fascination with Sculley when they made her vulnerable and emotional. The ice-maiden thing was quite the draw, but when I saw her crying and needy...hell, I can find that anywhere. Cerebral and aloof? Sign me up.
A multi-year arc is pretty damn hard to pull off. Hardly anyone has ever tried, and fewer have succeeded. With the network breathing down your neck to maximise ratings, the temptation is always to go for reveals and cliffhangers, even if they are undermining your conclusion a year or more later. Babylon 5 is the classic example, and that only just scraped in. It managed to keep on track because of having one guiding force, Straczynski, who wrote most of the episodes. Which meant some mediocre dialogue, but that's another angle.
The X-Files started going downhill when most of the seasons had more impossible conspiracy episodes than anything else... it just started getting boring. As long as it's stand-alone and supernatural instead of the government conspiracy dribble from before it has great potential. I've often thought the series could come back without problems as long as they made the episodes all about one-off paranormal incidents and found a way to finish with the never-ending conspiracy.
That's why the producers sat down with the studios and got in writing exactly how they plan to end it, and how many more episodes they are doing. The concern was always if the show was making money, ABC might force them to continue a story they didn't want to tell. They joked about how Season 8 would be the zombie season when they ran out of ideas. But we're only getting 48 more episodes and it is done. If you see the Season 3 finale, you'll know the show is rapidly moving towards a conclusion now. The finale was one of the boldest moves I've ever seen. It really did completely change the entire show in a way no one thought they would do.
I was spoiled (I wish I wasn't) and it was still really good. I won't dare spoil it for anyone else, but I'm betting money that years later people will still talk about that moment as one of the best in history.
Star Trek: TNG had some pretty soft first few seasons, and it only really cemented its status as a truly great show with the third season finale if anyone recalls, when Picard gets assimilated by the Borg. That finale pales in comparison to what Lost did.
The biggest problem with Lost is waiting for new episodes. It seems like it is moving slow because the show takes so many lengthy breaks. If you ask fans who simply watch the DVDs, they get a very different take on the show because they don't have those breaks. Given that there are only going to be 48 more episodes, I might just recommend that to people. Hold off, and buy the DVDs. Hell, the show is broadcast in high-def, but the DVDs are only 480p. I'm waiting for some BluRay discs myself.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
"Would stay away from the series' (and first film's) sometimes tortured mythology"
Kinda like how the Doom movies attempt of dodging the original Doom story? (other than Mars, BFG and killing)
Lovely, enjoy your fail... (possibly even more so with this movie, although i'm not sure how big The X-Files fanbase is)
David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in a new X-Files movie? That's a surprise, now that their individual, off-x-files careers have skyrocketed so completely!
"Evolution" is the only non-x-files movie I can remember having seen either of them in, and belive me; I'd rather I forgot.
SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
Four toed statue. And the 'ruins' (the place featuring the statue) has been confirmed to be the set of season 4. I'd say LOST is not for the impatient :)
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I have been a fan of the series for years. I even have all the DVDs.
The whole idea of making a one off episode rather than one that ties all the loose ends of the mythology annoys me.
I don't want to watch them do some of that quirky shit they did in some of the 'funny' episodes, I want the whole conspiracy thing. I'm sure most fans are with me on this, the one off episodes always seemed like filler to me, and I'll be damned if I'll go see a movie of that.
A lot of people have commented that the conspiracy plot was the real meat of the show, and the non-conspiracy episodes were a waste of time. And a lot of people have commented that the oddball episodes were the only interesting ones, and the conspiracy got stale. I personally think the success of the show comes down to having both types of episodes. Obviously the FBI was not going to hire these two agents to investigate one single controversial case for a decade. It made sense that they had shifting responsibilities. The conspiracy would have gotten stale a lot sooner if this hadn't been the case.
That said, a movie always has to be bigger than an episode (*cough* Star Trek V *cough*) and if this is just a monster-of-the-week episode with a scope that is smaller than that of the previous film, and if they make no mention of the overall story arc whatsoever, it could end up being a waste of celluloid. They'd be safer making the movies exclusively about the conspiracy.
> Gillian Anderson has got to be pretty old by now. The fun may be
> gone.
Nope. She was recently in a UK TV production of Bleak House.
She's certainly less gamine, but still *gorgeous*, at least to my taste (to me Sigourney Weaver's hotter in Alien Resurrection than the original).
Conrad
If I had the points, I'd burn 'em. Excellent points all around.
Even the Chronicles of Narnia started this way - Lewis didn't start out to write an allegory of Christ, it more or less just happened after Aslan came bounding into the picture.
A little coaching on the locations would have helped, too.
There was one episode that took place somewhere near Lack Sacangaga in upstate New York. I know this area. I live 30 miles from it. I went to a summer camp on its shores as a kid.
It would have been nice if someone, especially one of the "locals", pronounced it "sa can DA ga", as it should be, rather than "sa CAN da ga".
I can forgive Mulder his mispronunciation.... after all he (the character, that is) lives in a different area. The locals should have given him the right pronunciation. Even better and more realistic, he should have fumbled over it like most people from out of the area do with the names of a lot of places around here.
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I'm in Hong Kong. We get Lost and such series here usually several months after the US. But the advantage is, they run them straight through one per week, even for series cancelled midseason in the US. If I care about a series I have to take care to avoid spoilers. Of course, the DVDs are available here too, and downloads, but I rarely indulge in that unless I happen to miss a broadcast.
Much like most of the X-Files series, if I see this movie, I'll be disappointed by an anticlimactic ending that solves absolutely nothing. I think I'll save my $8 now and add it to my Netflix queue now.
The game.
The series did end on what was rather a cliff hanger. However, the series became very fucking stupid, so I'd imagine it's a good thing that they're straying from the mythology. To me, the "mythology" episodes were always the low points anyway. They just became worse as the series progressed and they were almost all that we had with no interspersed stand-alone monster hunts. Worse mythology stories than just UFOs too, like Uber Soldats! Besides, Doggett was an annoying character from day one. Having said that, I thought the first film fit in well and was entertaining.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
This sounds like a full length version of the monster/mutant episodes I would turn off after 10 minutes... The whole alien abduction/government conspiracy/Area 51 stuff was (imho) what sustained the series. I was excited by the headline, but this sounds like it's going to be just another horror movie starring Mulder and Scully. Sad, sad stuff...
I'm glad this is happening, the world was crying out for a new X Files movie. I'm glad all my protest letters to Fox finally had an effect.
Now that it's starting, I can tell you all the plotline. In the first half of the movie, Scully and Mulder will travel deep into the artic to find the lost alien mothership that contains the special brand of bees needed to resurrect the Lone Gunmen.
In the second half of the movie, Scully and Mulder will try to save the world from Zombie Lone Gunmen.
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
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That's why the producers sat down with the studios and got in writing exactly how they plan to end it, and how many more episodes they are doing.
There is a danger it could end up like Babylon 5: Planned for a five-year arc, told to end it in four, then having the studio change their mind so you need a year of filler before the ending you actually wanted...
Personally, I thought that if the episode didn't have "Written by Darin Morgan" on it, it was pretty much worthless. He had a great knack for both drama and satire (particularly the subtle way he mocked the very staples of the "consipircy theory/Xfiles" mentality). Darin's answer to "I want to believe" was a resounding "Get a fucking life."
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
...and here I thought malicious modding down was saved for political posts? I guess I stepped on some toes here :)
"Question with boldness even the existence of a god." - Thomas Jefferson
Seriously, you went with "bazoongas"? That is at the same time both awesome and lame.
Starting next year I believe they are running them straight through. There will only be 18 episodes per season, because they are basically stretching three seasons into 2 for more money. It also means basically a 9 month wait between seasons as well, but I actually prefer that over breaks between episodes.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Luckily Lost still wins its time slot, even if the media keeps ripping it and claiming there is a ratings decrease. There has been a ratings decrease ever since they started legally selling the show as a download on iTunes, and allowing you to watch it for free on ABC.com
However, I also read that between DVD sales, iTunes purchases, and viewers on ABC.com it has more viewers than CSI, the number 1 show on television. Unless they fuck up hard core this year, it won't get canceled.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
I was kinda hoping if X-files ever returned it would be in a parody/tribute to itself, a la Galaxy Quest. Duchovny is a pretty funny guy.
I think too much time has passed to try and re-indoctrinate folks to the "tortured mythology" of the X-files, and the monster-of-the-week episode could really work, because many of those types of episodes still stick out in my mind (like, as one user mentioned, the critter/sporeling in the arctic research station which admittedly was something of a rehash of The Thing).
However, the problem I've always had with TV-to-movie transitions is that nowadays, the production values are so good in the episodes that there's little a movie can do to add to the prestige of the original series. TV serial formats have the advantage of hours and hours of lore and backstory, while movies, though typically a bit better crafted and with bigger explosions/effects, have approximately two hours to get EVERYTHING across.
Serenity was at least an opportunity for Joss to get closure on his murdered television series, but I smell a cash cow and little else with this new X-Files flick (and maybe Duchovny's realization that his vanity exceeded his aptitude when he left the series aloft the marketing of his own name).
The moon may be smaller than the earth, but it's much farther away!
They need to end the story. It has to follow the series and complete the colonization theme or the whole series has been a waste.
the whole mythology arc lost all relevance after One Son anyway - so no loss there
and many of the greatest episodes were Monster of the Week ones anyway - even some of the very best mythology-arc eps (like Conduit) were all about showing us both the personas of mulder and scully and the ordinary characters involved in the military/alien stuff, not about any revelations of the mysteries of the mythology itself
it's just going to be a bit weird to have mulder and scully TOGETHER now, having had li'l william & all that
course i guess that's just new ground for a different sort of tension, as is having the whole aliens' thing more BEHIND them now
but, what, they've gone from being on the run and mulder's being a fugitive from a military prison to being at the FBI again? or non-FBI folks now? or...?
You'd be surprised what's not on the map in this country. - Mulder