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May
23
2008

Soundtrax: X-Files Revisited

May-23-2008
Soundtrax: Episode 2008-11
X-Files Revisited
Randall D. Larson

[Original article here]

This week we talk with Mark Snow about his music for the new X-Files movie and get a small glimpse at what a massive score this is going to be.  He also discusses scoring The Ghost Whisperer and his sublime score for legendary French director Alain Resnais’s Private Fears in Public Places.  We kick of the Summer with reviews of the soundtracks for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Speed Racer, The Strangers, and Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight, fine scores all.  And, as usual, the latest film music news is gathered from the seven seas.
Mark Snow

Interview: Mark Snow on X-Files: I Want To Believe

Mark Snow is best known for his many seasons of music scoring for TV’s The X-Files and Millennium, although his work has encompassed many more series (including the popular shows Smallville and The Ghost Whisperer) and made-for-television movies as well as a handful of feature films (including the recent Award winning drama from legendary French director Alain Resnais, Private Fears in for Public Places, aka Coeurs (Hearts) – quite a significant coup for an American television composer, and one that earned him a César Award nomination [the main national film award in France] for best score.  Snow’s many musical scores for American television and films have also garnered him numerous Emmy nominations and ASCAP awards. In 2006, he became the first composer to receive ASCAP’s prestigious Golden Note Award for lifetime achievement and impact on music culture.  Mark Snow’s iconic X-Files theme remains a worldwide phenomenon.  

Snow is now poised to regain that recognition as the new X-Files movie, The X-Files: I Want To Believe, preps for release on July 25th.  Snow scored the show’s first feature film, The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998), with a massive orchestral score that took the show’s central thematic material and expanded it to fit the sonic scope of the big screen, and his music for the new film promises to raise the bar even higher.  Interviewed last week while in the midst of completing the new score, Mark Snow describes his music for the further adventures of agents Mulder and Scully, along with his other recent work.

Q: So how far along are you with the new X-Files movie?

Mark Snow:  Half way done.

Q: What can you tell me about this score? 

Mark Snow:  We’re using a gigantic orchestra with no trumpets or high woodwinds.  It’s tons of brass, big strings, and a few low bass clarinets, contrabassoon.  Plus we have another orchestra doing effects stuff on top of it – no music, just musical effects like [imitates an orchestral effect] “haaiii-pnnnnnn…”, that lay in at certain points.  I’ve also got a genius sample percussion guy who’s adding on to that, plus my own atmospheric stuff there, so the music is made up of these four elements.  I’ve been lucky enough to get Alan Meyerson as the music mixer – he’s the engineer who does Hans Zimmer’s stuff and who is a technical genius.   He is probably one of the few guys who can pull this off.  We’ve got assistants among assistants – he’s got his crew, I’ve got a couple of guys just helping me, sending MIDI files, getting these things out to the copyist.    

Q: The first X-Files movie expanded the music you were doing the TV series and gave it a huge widescreen scope.  It sounds like this new score will be doing that yet again, intensifying what you had in the first X-Files movie by yet another several degrees.

Mark Snow:  But it’s very different.  This movie is not along the lines of the mythology story of The X-Files, with the government conspiracy and aliens and flying saucers.  We’re all sworn to secrecy and death if we talk about the story, but I can tell you that there aren’t any aliens in this movie.  It’s much more of a standalone episode, and so the music is not like the last one.  Actually there is one cue from the first movie that the music editor tracked in, and it worked great, but that’s it.

Q: Will there be recognizable material such as The X-Files theme, beyond the opening title?

Mark Snow:  Yeah.  If you’re a musician you’ll hear that in the orchestra parts from time to time.  Not blatant, but nice and subtle.

Q: What’s central to the score, musically?  Where does the score hang its hat on?

Mark Snow:  It’s just dark.  Deep and pulsating.  On the other hand there are two really beautiful melodic themes.  One is sort of like the Gabriel Fauré Requiem, that kind of thing.  I am using boy soprano live, and then a counter tenor, which is a male voice that sounds like a woman’s.

Q: How much music is this score going to take?

Mark Snow:   Tons!  Maybe 70 minutes.

Q: What was it like revisiting, or returning to The X-Files after several years hiatus?

Mark Snow:  Like fitting into a great pair of old shoes. 

Q: Any plans yet for a soundtrack album?

Mark Snow:  Yes, on the Decca label.

Q: Meanwhile, you’re still doing Smallville and The Ghost Whisperer…?

Mark Snow:  The seasons have both ended, so I’m not doing either of them right now.  I won’t be coming back on Smallville, it’s just been way too much.  I will come back next season to do Ghost Whisperer.

Q: You worked on Smallville for seven seasons.  How has the music or its needs changed, evolved, or developed throughout that run?

Mark Snow:  Not a bit!  It was: ‘Pilot: John Williams.’  ‘Yes sir.  Done!’  ‘Thanks, bye!’ 

Q: So it was more maintaining the heroic concept and the mythology than progressing through specific changes…

Mark Snow:  That’s right, exactly.

Q: I’ve been enjoying your music for The Ghost Whisperer, a neat mixture of ghosts and character drama with very good writing, excellent performances, and of course a compelling musical underscore.

Mark Snow:  The thing that they really want in the music is a real emotional quality.   So that’s been a combination of spooky, emotional, and mysterious.  

Q: Even though it comes from a supernatural basis and certainly has moments that are spooky/scary but in essence it’s more of an emotional drama.

Mark Snow:  That’s right.  The idea of people crossing over – they try to do this in a hip way so it’s, in a sense, like Highway To Heaven or Touched By An Angel but much more modern/contemporary/cooler. 

Q: When you’re scoring a weekly series like Ghost Whisperer, you’ve defined your musical approach in the pilot.  Have there been opportunities in the individual stories of Ghost Whisperer to do something varied, or are you tied to a given musical concept from the start?

Mark Snow:  Ninety percent of the music on Ghost Whisperer is under dialog.  It’s very rare that there’s music without dialog, for whatever reason.  But it’s like setting up a sound and the pallet for it and just revisiting it in different variations.  They love the piano, and they love pads and percussion pulsing along, but then all of a sudden if you do an orchestra sound with a real strong melody they just go nuts for that.  It’s the contrast, that what I think is successful about that.

Q: Are there’s enough variation in the storylines to afford different instrumental pallets?

Mark Snow:  Certainly, when the show calls for some ethnic music or we go to different locations.  Sometimes these flashbacks have period piece connotations to them also, which calls for different kinds of music.

Q: Was there a specific way that they asked you to deal with the supernatural aspects, like the appearance of the ghosts, or emphasize when things are going a little bit strange?

Mark Snow:  They rely heavily on sound effects for all those things, when the ghost pops in or pops out or moves across the room.  I kind of lay low then, because the sound effects guys really go to town there.  At first they wanted us both to go crazy at those moments and they’d pick out what they liked the best, but that turned out to be a mess, so then I knew to calm down and let the sound effects do those moments.  But obviously sound effects can’t do the nice melody stuff, so I get my turn.

Q: You recently composed the music for Alain Resnais’ Coeurs (Private Fears in Public Places), which must have been quite a coup to get to work for the legendary French director.  I understand that Resnais was attracted to your music due to the X-Files.   How did he first get in contact with you for this?

Mark Snow:   He just called.  He found out who represented me and called.  I never associated his name with all his marvelous past, which is classic, this guy is a giant in the French New Wave cinema.  He just heard X-Files reruns on French TV, and he thought the music would be perfect, for whatever reason.

Q: He was drawn to the more melodic material which is laced throughout the X-Files scores, rather than the scary stuff?

Mark Snow:  Actually, no!  He was really talking about the more atmospheric music.  He thought that would be fitting.  They had tracked it with my music.  There was some melodic stuff but nothing like what it turned out to be, that’s for sure.

Q: Did you score it over here or did you go over to France?

Mark Snow:  I met with him in Paris but I actually did it in Connecticut.  I have a studio out there.

Q: What was the process, as far as determining what he wanted and how you should approach the music?

Mark Snow:  He said, ‘just do what you think is right, like the kind of thing we put in [the temp score].’  I had actually written a theme before I got there, just from reading the script, and it turned out to be the main theme.  I sent him music from Connecticut, and then it was waiting for that first phone call, that initial reaction, which is always nerve racking.  But he called and said ‘it’s great,’ and then as I kept sending him stuff, he would just say, ‘oh, make this part a little this, or a little that.’  ‘Okay, fine.’  ‘Wonderful, thank you!’  And done.  Then what happens, in France, apparently, they take the music and they just put it wherever they want to!  So there were places where they moved the starts and they fade it in early or used another cue, stuff like that.  I mean, not that you’d really notice, and nothing that was like bad from my point of view.  Then they called and said ‘you’ve got a Cesar nomination along with a lot of other people in the group here.’  It was a big hit at all these festivals, and it won the Special Award at one of them.  And now there’s a possibility of doing his next movie, which he’s just finishing now.

Q: How did this feature film experience differ from writing for a television series?

MS:  The marvelous thing about movies as opposed to TV, you can write these kinds of things.  In TV the producers are always going, ‘no, no! Pulse!  Pulse!  We need rhythm!  We need to keep the audience awake!’  And then if you write a minor chord, they go, ‘no, no!  That’s sad!  We can’t have sad!’  Even if it is sad!  But with this, you get that mood going, you get your theme going, and that’s it.  That’s what was so great.  

Q: What was the element that you felt was the crux of the film – or “this is what I want to hang my score on?”

Mark Snow:  That’s a good question.  I would say, toward the end, you start feeling, as corny as it sounds, the tragic element of these people not being able to connect.  So it was toward the end when you knew it was like, oh shit, it was inevitable that this ain’t going to work out for anyone.  That’s where the meat of the score lay. 

Q: You recorded in Connecticut?

Mark Snow:  I have a studio there.  I played it and recorded it – it was all by me, there was not one live instrument.  But we mixed it at the Sony Records studio in New York.  I had my mixer fly in from L.A., and we did it, which was amazing.  It was pretty great. 

Q: So what’s coming up for you after the new X-Files movie?

Mark Snow:  I’ve got this other movie coming up, a kids’ movie called The Knights Of Appletown.  It was directed and written by Bobby Moresco, who co-wrote Crash with Paul Haggis, of all things.  It’s a sweet little movie and it’s miles and miles away from X-Files!

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May
08
2008

Los Angeles Times: David Duchovny, Mr. X-Files, says, 'God, what a great love affair'

May-08-2008
David Duchovny, Mr. X-Files, says, ‘God, what a great love affair’
Los Angeles Times
Geoff Boucher

[Original article here]

The actor is paired up and on the hunt again for aliens and freaky folk. But first (and unlike Mulder), he declares his feelings for his FBI partner.

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THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE: Of the movie’s plot, Duchovny, in true FBI style, says: “You can ask, but my job is to not answer.” (Karen Tapia-Andersen / Los Angeles Times)

THE CAST and crew of the upcoming “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” were just a few weeks into filming in Vancouver when Frank Spotnitz, the co-writer and co-producer with creator-director Chris Carter, called star David Duchovny over to a laptop computer to watch a fan-made video on YouTube. It was a montage of scenes from the old “X-Files” show set to Sarah McLachlan‘s forlorn “When She Loved Me.” ¶ “It was intensely romantic and it almost brought tears to my eyes,” Duchovny recalled. “It really did. And it reminded me that we have at the core of ‘The X-Files’ this very powerful relationship. We have to honor that and not shy away from the sentimentality of the fans or of the relationship itself. When we were doing the show, Gillian [Anderson] and I had got tired of it. And we wanted to be ourselves outside of it. I remember struggling. But now I think, ‘God, what a great love affair.’ ” ¶ Those are healing words for the intensely devoted fans of the television series that became a pop-culture phenomenon in the 1990s and made Duchovny’s Fox Mulder and Anderson’s Dana Scully a sort of Tracy and Hepburn, albeit with alien autopsies. The show debuted in 1992, peaked with audiences in its fifth season but ran out of gas in 2002. On July 25, the flashlights come out again and FBI agents Mulder and Scully will restart their spooky romantic tango.

The plot of the film has been intensely guarded and, sitting in a coffee shop in Santa Monica, Duchovny carefully sidestepped questions about the story cooked up by Carter and Spotnitz. “You can ask, but my job is to not answer,” said the lean 47-year-old who this year picked up a Golden Globe for his work in “Californication” on Showtime.

Duchovny did confirm that “I Want to Believe” will be in the tradition of the “stand-alone” episodes of the old series, meaning it’s not part of the long, complicated story arc concerning a shadow government and alien life; this will be more of a “horror and suspense movie, the creepy stuff as procedural,” that finds the agents more on Scooby-Doo duty rather than in Oliver Stone mode.

A good portion of the movie was filmed in Whistler, the alpine skiing hub in Canada’s Coast Mountains, and the intense snow on screen is both majestic and unsettling as the agents chase their mystery.

“It’s not a James Bond film,” Duchovny said with a wry smile. “We’re not chasing a guy on a snowboard. Not that that wouldn’t have been cool. But it’s not that. I’m lobbying already to make the next one in Hawaii. It’s not going so well. But the snow looks amazing. The flashlights in the snow look great.”

The franchise hit the silver screen in 1998 with “The X-Files: Fight the Future,” and a sequel was expected in 2001 but legal quarrels between Carter and 20th Century Fox delayed the process, and then script and scheduling issues hampered the process further. The film will acknowledge the time passage and even have a bit of fun with it, such as a scene early on in which Mulder and Scully, in a corridor at FBI headquarters, both glance purposely at the portrait of President Bush on the wall; the Clinton photographs from the 1990s are long gone.

“It’s not like other science-fiction shows where time is frozen or you’re in an unfamiliar world,” he said. “You’ve got to make these actual people who have aged and changed. For me, I thought I could kind of slip back into the character pretty easily, but early on in filming I found myself wondering whether I had done enough work. It was more of a challenge than I expected.”

What helped? “Working with Gillian again and that rhythm between us, that was probably the easiest thing and very helpful for me. It was key for me to get back to Mulder and nice we didn’t have to kind of play it up or emphasize it or exaggerate it. I really didn’t do any research, per se. I have seen the show over the past six years. Usually when I can’t sleep and I turn on the TV and it’s there. I do watch it for a few minutes and it’s nice now. It’s like home movies. But with autopsies.”

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May
01
2008

X-Files Italian Fan Site: XFIFS Interviews Frank Spotnitz

??-??-2008 (May-2008?)
X-Files Italian Fan Site
XFIFS Interviews Frank Spotnitz

[Original article here]

Q: Are you upset for anything leeked out on internet? Were you bewildered by fans’perspicacity in catching spoilers and informations?

FS: We are grateful for all the interest in the movie! Fortunately, there has been so much disinformation on the Internet that no one trusts any of the spoilers, which has allowed us (so far) to preserve the element of surprise. And yes, we are constantly impressed by how perceptive the fans are.

Q: We saw pictures where Mulder has a beard and we know Scully has long hair in this movie. Was it your choice or Gillian and David has something to do with it?

FS: If these descriptions turn out to be true, we can talk about them after the movie opens!

Q: Who missed most among the people you used to work with during the series?

FS: I’ve missed so many people, particularly among the crews in Vancouver and Los Angeles. I’ve been able to keep in touch (more or less) with many of the actors and writers. But one of the nicest things about making “I Want to Believe” was the chance to reconnect with so many colleagues I hadn’t seen in a long time.

Q: Is there any important actor who wanted to be in the second movie and you didn’t choose him/her?

FS: Honestly, no. We got the cast we dreamed of.

Q: We know you haven’t released it yet, but does the title have a connection to something?

FS: Yes. In addition to harkening back to the original idea of the series, “I Want to Believe” speaks perfectly to the conflict that’s at the heart of the new movie.

Q: We don’t know if William is mentioned in this movie (we hope so) but if he is not, do you think you will talk about him in the 3rd movie in the case there will be a 3rd movie?

FS: All I can say is I hope there is a third movie!

Q: What can you tell us about XF2 which you didn’t tell anybody before?

FS: We’ve just finished editing the picture!

Q: Where does the name Frankie come from?

FS: One of Chris’ dogs, a standard poodle who sadly passed away during the filming of the movie.

Q: Considering the point where X-Files is right now, can you say that it’s where you planned it to be when you created the series?

FS: No, I don’t think Chris Carter could’ve imagined the life and longevity “The X-Files” has had when he created the series 16 years ago.

Q: What was the hardest thing you both have to face with writing the script or the story?

FS: Working in all that freezing cold weather we’d written into the movie!

Q: Is there going to be a cliffhanger at the end of the second movie that might be connected to a possible 3rd one?

FS: No. We didn’t want to set this up as a tease or hook for another movie. We just wanted to make a really great movie that would stand on its own.

Q: Did you get an ispiration from something (movie, book, anything) for the plot?

FS: Yes. (But I can’t tell you what right now.)

Q: What are you most afraid of fans opinions or bad reviews?

FS: Hmm. I try not to be afraid of either. Our attitude has been to work hard to make something that we really love. We can’t control or predict how others will react.

Q: When (the year or the season) did you plan the storyline about Scully’s pregnacy?

FS: We had thought about it for some time (at least since Season 5), but we didn’t definitely decide on Scully’s pregnancy until Season 7.

Q: At the end of the series Mulder gave us a glimmer of hope, what can Mulder and Scully still hope for their personal lives? Can you answer both?

FS: Sorry, I can’t say. But you’ll find out soon enough…!

Q: Can you tell me your favorite episode by the direction’s point of view (not necessarily one of yours also by the other X-Files’ directors)?

FS: Two of my favorite episodes, from a directing standpoint, would have to be “The Post-Modern Prometheus” and “Triangle,” both directed by Chris. I love “Post-Modern Prometheus” because of its quirky and unique point of view, and “Triangle” is technically an incredible feat. Other than that, I would say anything directed by Rob Bowman, Kim Manners, Dan Sackheim or David Nutter. They are all masterful.

Q: Why every time there is a kiss between Mulder and Scully the lights are off? On the behalf of all the italian x-philes, can we pay the power bill?

FS: Ha! Is that true? I thought the lights were on in “Millennium!”

Q: If there was any reason that can make Scully leave Mulder and vice-versa what would it be?

FS: There are conflicts that could drive apart anyone. As for what they might be, I can’t say…

Q: For us X-Files is like a life’s philosophy, during the past 5/6 years how much were Mulder and Scully present in your lives?

FS: I would say I tried not to think of them directly because I was working on different projects, and wanted to find different ways of depicting characters and telling stories. But on a deeper level, I would have to say Mulder and Scully have always been with me (and always will).

Q: Have something paranormal ever hapenned on The X Files’ set?

FS: Good question. Yes, there have been a few strange things – a healthy and giant tree falling where a catering truck had been parked moments earlier; people feeling the presence of ghosts. Nothing weird enough to make for an episode, though!

Q: I really admire your work, Frank, and I`m curous do you have any idol?

FS: I am inspired by so many people! From my colleagues on the show… to historical figures like Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr… to great cultural figures, ranging from the chef Thomas Keller and the novelist Graham Greene… to filmmakers like John Ford and Woody Allen… and musicians like Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty.

Q: I know Chris doesn’t watch much the TV, so the question is for Frank. Do you have any fav tv show?

FS: “Breaking Bad,” Vince Gilligan’s new show.

Q: I must say that I watched and own all your tv series and I am so sorry Harsh Realm and Night Stalker didn’t get the chance to be on air a little more. Did you plan the end of the 2 shows? May I know it?

FS: “Harsh Realm” would’ve ended with Hobbes defeating Santiago and reuniting with Sophie – we hadn’t worked it out yet any more specifically than that. As for “Night Stalker,” you can find my thoughts about the ending at length on the DVD commentary.

Q: Who got the idea of the scene in the opening title of season 8 where Mulder falls into an eye?

FS: I don’t remember!

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Apr
22
2008

The A.V. Club: Interview: Chris Carter

Apr-22-2008
The A.V. Club
Interview: Chris Carter
Keith Phipps

[Original article here]

Chris Carter spent the ’80s working as a writer and editor for Surfing magazine and developing TV shows for Disney before creating the TV series that made his name. Debuting in the fall of 1993 on Fox, The X-Files became one of the defining television series of the ’90s. Starring David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, two FBI agents charged with investigating strange cases, The X-Files mixed hard science and fringe beliefs into stories that were alternately comedic, terrifying, and philosophical. Playing Scully’s skepticism against Mulder’s credulity, it used pre-millennium tension, post-Watergate paranoia, UFO lore, and long-simmering sexual tension to create an atmosphere all its own.

It proved tough to imitate. Other Carter projects, like Harsh Realm and the X-Files spin-off The Lone Gunmen, faded quickly. The high-profile Millennium developed a cult following, but died after three seasons. Meanwhile, the 1998 release of the feature film The X-Files: Fight The Future signaled a high-water mark for the show’s grip on the pop-culture imagination, coinciding with a move of operations from Vancouver to Los Angeles after The X-Files‘ fifth season. Later seasons were notable for declining ratings and Duchovny’s limited participation.

But the cult never really went away, and this June will see the debut of the new film X-Files: I Want To Believe, which reunites Carter, Duchovny, and Anderson. Carter has remained tight-lipped about the plot, beyond revealing that it will be a standalone, not tied to the series’ overarching story about a long-in-the-making alien invasion. But in a recent conversation with The A.V. Club, Carter had plenty to say about changing times and the reasons for doing a movie now.

The A.V. Club: You’d have to be in the final stages of making this film now, right?

Chris Carter: Well, sort of. We finished filming about three weeks ago, so we’re editing now, and we’ll be editing and doing post-production right up until the première.

AVC: It’s been six years since The X-Files went off the air. Does that put more pressure on you for this movie?

CC: To make the movie, or to make the movie good?

AVC: To make the movie good.

CC: There’s always the pressure to make the movie good. I don’t know if it adds any time—I think it actually was just the right amount of time away, for me and for the audience, I hope. Those are my instincts.

AVC: Why do you think that is?

CC: 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.

AVC: Why would it be now or never? Do you not think it would have still worked a couple years from now?

CC: It possibly could, but there was a writers’ strike coming up, and they wanted to do it before the strike.

AVC: Spoilers are now a problem in a way that they really weren’t when you were doing the series, yet you’ve done a good job of keeping the details of this film under wraps. What was that process like?

CC: Working with people you trust, and having done it before. Only showing the script to the people that needed to see it. Everybody wants to keep it a secret. It’s really, as Fox has pointed out to me, it’s the people who have a script and they leave it on their kitchen table, and somebody else looks at it, that’s how the details get out. I don’t know if we’ll stay successful in keeping the details a secret. The system is something you can’t control completely, so we’re trying to do our best.

AVC: Some fans have expressed disappointment that the film won’t be part of the overarching mythology of the show. What was the thinking behind that?

CC: 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.

AVC: So it won’t be completely ignored, then.

CC: It won’t be completely. What I don’t want to do is, I don’t want to insult the intelligence of the fan base, and have to take them through, I call it, a re-conceptualizing of the show.

AVC: The X-Files worked in part because it was in touch with this sort of vague, free-floating 1990s paranoia. Do you sense that our fears have changed in 2008?

CC: Yeah, they went away, and we trusted everyone. I should say, we trusted the government completely. And I think that’s changed again, and I think that there’s an element of distrust, and maybe the paranoia is different. But it was short-lived, that period of fear and trust in your government to protect your life and your interests.

AVC: Has what frightens you changed over the last 16 years?

CC: I think the longer you live, the more you see larger patterns in power and the corruption of absolute power. And I guess the things that frighten me are the same things, but now I have to say they’re an accretion of experience, and they come through being a good student.

AVC: Your roots were in comedy before you started The X-Files, and yet it began as a deadly serious show. Did you have to fight your instincts when you were first putting the show together?

CC: Well, it wasn’t a deadly serious show, there was actually humor in it, and I think David Duchovny was funny from the beginning. It was mild, though, because you don’t want to undermine, I would call it, the paranoia of the show. And it became actually a very funny show, not necessarily as a result of any of my comedic ability. It really became a comedy show as a combination of the terrific writers who came to write on it, and then one writer who really busted it open, Darin Morgan.

AVC: Fans never really embraced, in the later seasons, the idea of moving the focus away from Mulder and Scully. Why do you think that relationship resonated so strongly with viewers?

CC: I think it was, for me, an ideal relationship. It was cerebral, it was not easy, it was challenging. I think that the protectiveness he showed her, and the trust that she showed him, was something that was just lacking certainly in life, and then also in maybe entertainment relationships.

AVC: The X-Files always had at least one toe in actual science. Will that be important in the film as well?

CC: Absolutely.

AVC: Any scientific concepts that people might want to brush up on before seeing this movie?

CC: No. [Laughs.] But I never thought of it as a science-fiction show to begin with, even though it was labeled as science fiction, because I wanted it to be in the realm of speculative science, the kind of what-if, taking hard science and applying an unexplained quality.

AVC: Do you keep track of scientific developments, for your process?

CC: As much as I can.

AVC: What are your sources?

CC: My brother teaches at MIT, so I have a good source there. I did a fellowship at the Institute For Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara while I was taking some time off. I have friends who are scientists, and I read regularly science journals, etc.

AVC: You shut down your production company when The X-Files went off the air. What have you been doing in the meantime?

CC: I took some well-needed time off to think.

AVC: Lost, a show that’s obviously been influenced by The X-Files, made a big deal about announcing a definitive end point. Was that ever considered for The X-Files?

CC: No, the reason… We went to season five and we did the movie. Actually, at the end of season four, I could have left, and I might have opted to. My contract was up, and I could have left, and it would have been a successful show. But it was clear that Fox was going to—because it was a powerhouse for their schedule and for their network—the show was going to go on, and it would have gone on without me. And I had made a pledge to the actors that I would stay with the show as long as they did. And that kept me going, so there was not an end point imagined, which was a result of the fact that Fox was not going to end that show anytime without a reason to end it. And I think that it’s a luxury for the creators of Lost to be able to have an end point, and to have a network that supports it. I’m sure the network is not happy about it, because it is a business first, and entertainment second. And they get to put one before the other, which is a luxury that I didn’t actually have or imagine.

AVC: You’ve suggested that the years have made you even less trustful. Is there any sort of hopefulness to The X Files?

CC: Yeah, I think the whole concept of “trust no one,” if that was a mantra of The X-Files, is basically a desperate cry for someone to trust. And I think the show has been exceedingly hopeful, and the idea that it’s not is, I think, not looking deep into what the heart of the show is.

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Apr
16
2008

USA Today: Title of 'X-Files' sequel released

Apr-16-2008
Title of ‘X-Files’ sequel released
USA Today
David Germain

[Original article]

LOS ANGELES — 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 crewmembers 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.”

20th Century Fox is owned by News Corp.

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Apr
16
2008

Shock Till You Drop: Interview: The X-Files' David Duchovny

Apr-16-2008
Interview: The X-Files‘ David Duchovny
Shock Till You Drop
Ryan Rotten

[Original article here]

ShockTillYouDrop.com spoke to David Duchovny on the set of Fox’s new X-Files sequel, opening in theaters on July 25th.

ShockTillYouDrop: So much about the plot is being kept in the dark, so what can you tell us about some of the themes of the film?
David Duchovny: I think the reasoning behind being mum about what’s going on the film, at least for Chris, is to give the audience an experience of surprise which is so hard to do with trailers. Having said that, the themes are the same as the show [which were] belief and faith and the relationship between Mulder and Scully and how that develops over the past four or five years the show has been off the air. As if they’ve been living, as we’ve all been living – they’re not stuck in time. They’ve moved on in some fictional realm as we all have, yet their issues remain the same.

Shock: How has the X-Files changed now that the world has changed?
Duchovny: Has the world completely changed? People say the world changes all of the time, yet human nature remains the same, good stories are good stories and people are going to see them. I don’t think people go to movies because of what’s going on in the world. They go usually to escape what’s going on in the world and that always remains the same. I think what changes is the size of our cell phones.

Shock: Why is now the right time for you to make this movie?
Duchovny: I don’t know. I always felt, at any time, it would’ve been fine, whenever Chris was ready to come up with a script, when his burnout was over. As actors, our burnout was probably a little shorter than his – I think he carried a heavier load, producing, writing and directing. I know it took me about a year to feel whole after the show was over. After that point, it was always my intention and desire that the show would continue on in movie form. It was never my intention, when I left the television series, to sabotage the show in any way. Yes, we’ve done all we can on television, let’s take this into movies like we always said we would. I wouldn’t see any reason to do X-Files unless it [was carried into film]. It’s a serial show by its nature. The frame and the characters throw off an infinite number of stories and situations. It’s a classic, archetypal relationship between a believer and a non-believer with this unrequited love in the middle of it. That all works and it can work forever as long as your stories are good.

Shock: How excited were you to slip back into the Mulder persona after all of these years?
Duchovny: I was very excited to do it, then as the date to do it approached I started to wonder if I needed to work more. To get back into that. So, there was a certain amount of fear, because maybe I haven’t changed… I think what happened was that my facility, my range or interests might’ve changed, so this character might’ve represented a narrower box than I’ve been working in the last four or five years since I left. I had to bring what I’ve learned the last four or five years into this box. Last night, they have internet access here, and somebody pulled up one of these homages to the show with this romantic song [cut to] all of these kisses between Gillian and I. That was actually really helpful to feel the show again, because it was this overview and very romantic. It was like, Oh, I can watch that, and it would help me get into work. Whoever put that together, I thank them.

Shock: In the past you’ve had input in some of the X-Files scripts, have you contributed anything here?
Duchovny: Not in the initial conception or first writing of it, hardly at all because we signed off on the script right as the [WGA] strike happened. We had discussions about particular scenes and things we might try when we get there but it’s a tightly-plotted thriller. In essence, if you have a tightly-plotted thriller there’s not a lot of rewriting that should be done. The story drives forward. If you f**k around in the scenes you’re not going to drive the story forward. It’s not a form that tolerates improvisation and it was well enough put together when it was presented to me and Gillian, I thought there was nothing to add in that way.

Shock: This film reportedly delves into the realm of the supernatural, was it a relief to find that the story breaks away from the classic mythology involving aliens, etc.?
Duchovny: I like the mythology stuff, I always liked it more when we were doing the show because it usually gave Mulder an emotional stake through his sister – he was personally involved in the episodes. That was a relief and more fun as an actor to approach that during the yearly grind of the show. I could understand it, chew it up a little bit rather than being just a Law & Order procedural. So, in a way, I think I had an opposite reaction, I wish this [movie] was more about me. [laughs] But in effect, it’s more about the show and about establishing the parameters of the show for those who don’t know it, for those who’ve forgotten and even for those who love it – they’ll get that part as well. If there is [another film] and I hope there is, I think we would get into a story where more of the mythology [comes in], because that’s the heart of the show.

Shock: If there is another X-Files film, how interested would you be in taking the helm of that?
Duchovny: I’d be interested, but it’s not in my wheelhouse to direct a big action film like this. I would feel out of my element which is probably a good thing. I wouldn’t offer it to me. I might try to get it, I don’t know. No, I think I’d stay away from this. I might try to direct an action film, but I don’t think it’d be wise trying to direct myself in an action film or to screw around with this franchise. I feel like there are other opportunities to direct and I have other interests. If it was my only way into directing, then I might. It’d be fun and great but there are better people for it.

Shock: A lot of actors on hit television shows run the risk of, and fear, being typecast, but obviously you feel comfortable now playing Mulder.
Duchovny: I gave up a while ago worrying about the whole phenomenon of typecasting once I realized it happens across the board. It doesn’t just happen in terms of television shows. Some comedy actors get trapped in there, some dramatic actors can’t do comedy. Even movie actors who have long careers have two or three roles that they get stopped for unless you’re Brando. So, I don’t worry about that. What overcomes that is my sense of love for the show and belief in the show’s legitimacy as an interesting movie franchise with a lot to offer – the thriller aspect, the horror aspect but also the intelligence. All of those things make it a very fertile area to move on in.

Shock: Why do you think people love your character?
Duchovny: Isn’t that for you to answer? [laughs] Why I love Mulder, first and foremost, was always the truth and the case – yet he wasn’t so single-minded that it was kind of a drag, which that character could’ve been. I always liked that he was so narrow-minded in his pursuit. I think that’s attractive, I think people respect that in somebody and they yearn for a quest. He’s a guy on a quest and he always will be.

Shock: At this point in the game, has your working relationship with Gillian changed much from the series?
Duchovny: Yeah, it’s probably different in that we’re not exhausted all of the time. We’re excited to come and do what we think is the heart of the relationship. So, we’ll do these scenes that are action-oriented with Billy Connelly but then we come back to scenes like the one we’re doing today – and this is where the heart is, where the movie is. Then we have to trust each other to hold each other up in these scenes and bring back whatever was there.

Shock: Is there still a sense of discovery in this journey or is it business as usual with you and Gillian back in the groove?
Duchovny: I think there’s a real sense that we don’t want to cash in on the past. We all want to do something new, we don’t want to throw a piece of crap out there for people to go look at for nostalgia’s sake. I wonder and worry, how did [Mulder] change in the last five years? When I started, there was a certain boyishness to the guy I don’t feel I can play anymore physically. Like Mel Gibson’s Hamlet, yeah it was a good performance but the guy was twenty years too old. There are certain things energy-wise. How has he grown up? Remaining the same, how do you ease him into a different stage in his life? That’s a creative endeavor, certainly with Chris, directing a big movie like this which is different from anything he has done.

Shock: Has your dialogue with Chris changed much?
Duchovny: Oh yeah, I have ways I like to work and he has ways he likes to work and they’re not always the same. With respect, and privately, we deal with it. That’s a matter of getting older, too, and of being a professional. It happens privately. And it’s not a big deal, it’s like telling a lover, That finger there, that wasn’t great. [laughs] I know a lot of people like it, but me personally, that’s not me, just so you know. I know how I like to work now, I know how I like the director’s hands on me.

Shock: Does this film strike a balance between the shout-outs to the series and new stuff for those who have never seen the show?
Duchovny: I’m not a fan of the shout-outs, but in this they’re small, like Where’s Waldo? things. I think this movie is actually more accessible to the non-fan in terms of story and everything else. In terms of this water bottle maybe having the name of one of our producers on it, this movie probably has a ton of those things, but I’m not even paying attention. Sometimes I’ll see them and go, That’s stupid. [laughs] But there’s a lot of that going on and it’s fun for people.

Shock: There was some exhaustion on the fanbase’s behalf as the series entered its final seasons, do you think the film will lure them back?
Duchovny: I don’t know. You know there were nine years of one-hours. I can’t think of another show that did that with the same cast, although I wasn’t in most of the ninth year. You look at any drama, any long-running drama, and they don’t run that long normally. So, the exhaustion is mutual. [laughs] But I would think in the good will of trying to tell new stories you ultimately reach further in all directions. Probably by the seventh or eight years, the writers were forced to reach and I think there are fans who sit on that moment and wait for that sign of creative bankruptcy which has to come, naturally. A show like this is idea-driven, it’s not like, Oh, we’ve got good jokes, you’ll watch. It’s not like a sitcom that can run twelve years. If they were exhausted, and they fell in love with the show for the characters and the premise, for the execution and the writing, then that’s what we’re back to. This is more of a story we would have told in season three or four.

Shock: How scary does this movie get? When those early seasons you refer to went for scary, they were scary…
Duchovny: It gets scary. It’s pretty dark, there’s some nasty stuff going on. In a way you could do more on TV. Some of those TV shows were getting close to an R, but I know the mission is to make a PG-13 film. It’s more of the ideas behind it. What is Saw, rated R?

Shock: Yeah.
Duchovny: That should be X. This movie has some danger in there. Twisted, weird – there’s no torture. To me Saw doesn’t have a point, it’s some guy teaching people a lesson, through torture. X-Files was never about the nasty stuff, but hopefully there was a story with a purpose. We’ll torture for a reason, like the American government. [laughs]

Shock: I’m just curious if the film leans into my favorite episode which was Home.
Duchovny: There’s some of that, but I don’t know how much of that you’ll see, but it’s in the story. You’ll come away with, Wow, that’s what you were doing? Home is probably the most controversial show we ever made and it was pulled out of rotation and yet it’s one of maybe four or five shows somebody always brings up. Obviously, people have enjoyed that part of the show also.

Shock: There’s always been a place for humor with Mulder’s dry wit. Does the new film feature any laughs?
Duchovny: There’s a place for it, I was always looking for a place in the TV show and it’s an essential part of the character so I certainly always look for those moments. We’ve done them here, but whether or not they stay in the film, it’s always a matter of juggling the tone. In the show, it was, Is Mulder going to deflate the danger of the scene? In my opinion, it never did, but Chris and the writers and producers have different ideas, so I don’t know. I like to have some funny stuff in there.

Shock: When old episodes of the show come on, do you watch them or flee?
Duchovny: I don’t flee. I don’t seek them out. I’m not an appointment television watcher. I’m a child of the ’70s television watcher which is, I sit down in front of it and if something is on I’ll watch it, so I’m sometimes open to watching an X-Files if I’m flipping around. I don’t TiVo, I’m not silly that way. If something comes on, if I’m in bed with [wife] Téa, and we’re just going to sleep watching ten minutes of TV we’ll watch a bit.

Shock: Do you know of any major DVD extras that are planned for this film’s release?
Duchovny: Yes, a lot because I think there’s a lot of extra gore. We’re not just shooting a PG-13 version.

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