Chris Carter at William S. Paley Television Festival
Posted at 6:38 AM (PDT) on Thursday, March 27, 2008

Carter Offers X-Files Spoiler

By Patrick Lee
SciFi.com
March 27, 2008

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."

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X-Files Trailer Previewed

Chris Carter offered fans a glimpse at a rough cut of the trailer for the movie, which featured the new tagline "Believe Again."

Screened at the William S. Paley Television festival in Hollywood on March 26, the trailer featured a bit of dialogue between Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson):

Mulder: "Scully. I need you on this with me."

Scully: "I know. That's what scares me."

It featured quick cuts of footage of uniformed men searching a snowfield, led by a white-haired man played by Billy Connolly; someone dragging a body; Mulder in a car being hit by another vehicle; a glimpse of cast member Callum Keith Rennie; Scully hitting someone over the head with a blunt object; the discovery of a body buried in ice; and other images, some of which were also previewed at WonderCon in San Francisco last month.

The trailer ends with a voiceover bit of dialogue between Connolly's character and Mulder as viewers see an image of Mulder and Scully climbing out of a helicopter:

Connolly's voice: "Do you believe in these kind of things?"

Mulder's voice: "Let's just say I want to believe."

The finished trailer will debut in movie theaters along with Iron Man on May 2, a Fox spokesman told SCI FI Wire. The second as-yet-untitled X-Files movie opens July 25.