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Posts Tagged ‘millennium’

MM at 20 + LLL Vol.3

MillenniuM XX

October 25 2016 marks the 20th anniversary of MillenniuM!

Chris Carter’s second-longest creation saw its pilot premiere on October 25 1996, replacing the Friday night time slot of The X-Files, while The X-Files moved to Sunday nights early in its fourth season. MillenniuM went on for 67 episodes during three very different seasons which had one thing in common: the character of Frank Black, who, Christ-like, seems to bear the worries for the sins of the whole of humankind on his shoulders, and his memorable portrayal by Lance Henriksen.

frankwhite2

Since the 2008 release of the second X-Files movie I Want To Believe (very Millenniumistic, by the way) in 2008, the MillenniuM fandom is marked by the Back To Frank Black campaign, which did everything in its power to bring MillenniuM back in some form — and gave the world many interviews of cast and crews in the process, and produced a remarkable book of interviews and analysis in 2012.

Additionally: In 2014, IDW published a comics on MillenniuM, written by Joe Harris, but it did not continue beyond the initial five issues. In 2008, La La Land edited a 2-CD compilation of Mark Snow music from MillenniuM, and unexpectedly followed suit in 2015 with a Volume 2.

One more reason to celebrate: a new Millennium documentary project has been launched by a team involving B2FB, fan-made but professional-grade! The documentary Millennium after the Millennium is open for crowdfunding support.

Millennium after the Millennium is a new documentary focused on Chris Carter’s  landmark television series Millennium. Set twenty years after the show ended,  we take a look back at what makes Millennium so enduring to fans and critics alike. With virtually every major crew and cast member including Chris Carter, Lance Henriksen, Frank Spotnitz, Chip Johannessen, James Wong, Glen Morgan and many, many more,  we delve into how Millennium came to be and explore its turbulent production history while finding hope for the future. This documentary will be packed with thoughtful reflections and candid never before seen interviews. Want to know about that infamous missing Millennium script? Or the definitive answers to how Millennium ended up with three very unique seasons? How about the REAL reasons why Millennium was canceled? It’s all here including all the major players’ thoughts and ideas on how to bring our beloved Frank Black back!

It is expected to be released in 2017.

The X-Files Volume 3

Today is also another important date: Volume 3 of Mark Snow’s music for The X-Files is edited by La La Land Records! Limited edition of 3000 units.

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After Vol.1 in 2011 and Vol.2 in 2013 (The X-Files‘ own 20th anniversary), Vol.3 is another 4-CD compilation of music from across the whole length of the show, covering episodes not included in the previous two. EatTheCorn had compiled a long list of requests for Snow music worthy of a clean release for LLL’s consideration — the Massive Music Compilation, massively updated in 2015 — and I’m glad to see many requests made the cut! It will be updated again soon to incorporate Vol.3.

The TRUTH is out there OCTOBER 25, 2016
THE X-FILES VOLUME 3 — 4 CD BOX SET
MUSIC BY MARK SNOW
LLLCD 1370

Here is the tracklist:

Disc One

1. THE X-FILES Main Title (Season 1) 0:47
1X2 – DEEP THROAT 
2. UFO Kids 2:15
3. UFO Technology 2:15
4. Confrontation 2:09
5. Trek to Yellow Base 2:53
6. Eye Poke 1:06
7. Transfer and Release 3:26
1X4 – CONDUIT
8. Shaky Ground 2:13
9. Weather Balloons 1:00
10. Kevin, the NSA Menace 1:59
11. Switching Channels / Deciphering 1:11
12. Shallow Grave 2:03
13. Another X-File 1:48
1X9 – SPACE
14. The Young Col. Belt 1:23
15. Lift Off 4:00
16. Car Crash 0:57
17. Digital Data Banks 2:09
18. Aerial Burial 1:17
1X14 – GENDER BENDER
19. Sex Kills 1:32
20. Arrival in Town 1:18
21. Intro to Kindred, Part 2 3:19
22. Finding Kindred 3:24
23. I Called Him Marty 2:12
24. Indian Prince-(ss) 2:02
2X4 – SLEEPLESS
25. Fire in the Mind 2:51
26. A Call to Autopsy 1:21
27. Meet the New Throat 4:02
28. Top Secret Eyes 2:22
29. Spy Boy 1:25
2X7 – “3”
30. Bloody Jacuzzi 2:46
31. Old Files 3:06
32. Blood in the Loaf 4:26
33. Protector 5:22
34. Just Ashes and Bones 0:25

Disc One Total Time: 78:10
Disc Two

4X20 – SMALL POTATOES
1. Alieness 1:14
2. Light Sabre 1:08
3. Obie Gyn 1:13
4. Sugar Patootie 4:21
5. Identity Crisis 3:47
6. Potato Vault 0:40
7. Perk Prisoner 0:44
8. Mugging 4:00
9. Ain't No Eddie 0:55
4X11 – EL MUNDO GIRA
10. Sulphur Water 3:47
11. Killer Enzyme 3:02
12. Fungi Man 6:32
13. El Quasicabra! 7:05
2X18 – FEARFUL SYMMETRY
14. Pachyderm 2:32
15. Cat Food 3:41
16. Tiger Walk 3:26
17. Crushed 2:40
5X18 – THE PINE BLUFF VARIANT
18. Jog 4:21
6X21 – FIELD TRIP
19. Fungus Among Us 2:24
20. Swamp Ooze 3:08
21. Dream Time 9:55
22. Still Underground 1:52
23. Migraine Mushroom 4:04

Disc Two Total Time: 77:19
Disc Three

5X12 – BAD BLOOD
1. Stake In The Heart/Main Title 2:18
2. Can Kickin'/Ticket/Exuberant 1:55
3. Mushrooms 3:05
4. Fangs 1:30
5. Rolling Acres 2:40
6. Vibro-Pizza 4:04
7. Living Dead 4:40
5X01 – UNUSUAL SUSPECTS
8. Fell's Point 2:37
9. Hackland 1:49
10. Holly Sugar 3:04
11. Molar Wire 3:29
12. Cleaners 4:13
13. The Truth Is 4:09
5X04 – DETOUR
14. Bush Monster 2:14
15. Trail of Stolen Pebbles 4:26
16. Forest Fridge 5:28
5X13 – PATIENT X
17. Barbecue Ludi 3:04
18. Malchik 2:51
19. The Krycek Diet 3:13
20. Skyland Barbecue 4:38
21. Les Saboteurs 6:05
22. Bridge of Sighs 5:33

Disc Three Total Time: 77:57
Disc Four

6X02 – DRIVE
1. Special Report 0:09
2. Road Rage 1:58
3. Head Blow 4:22
4. Hijack 4:07
5. Westward Ho 3:54
6. Inner Ear 10:00
7. ELF Wave 7:19
8. Manure Piles 1:20
8X20 – ESSENCE
9. Recap 0:52
10. Parenti’s Showroom 4:18
11. Billy the Terminator 5:12
12. Head Bag 2:17
13. Vitamins 3:14
14. Lizzy's Labours 6:10
15. Compacted 4:17
9X06 – TRUST NO 1
16. Computer Lab 1:42
17. Spies Like Us 2:32
18. Puppet Master 9:11
19. Jumper / Scully's Serenade 5:10
20. THE X-FILES 1st Season End Credits 0:28
21. I Made This/20th Century Fox Fanfare* 0:09
* - Music By Alfred Newman

Disc Four Total Time: 78:02

Total Set Running Time: 5:10:28

Vol.3 covers just 18 episodes (and no episodes from seasons 3 and 7) compared to 40 and 33 from the previous two volumes. This means much longer cues and more time spent per episode on average — which is great news given the atmospheric nature of Snow’s soundtrack, especially in those early seasons. But it also means that many essential cues from many episodes still haven’t been released and are postponed to a potential Volume 4.

Here are the running totals summed across all three volumes:

SeasonEpisodesLength
1141:57:19
2132:13:36
391:02:19
4122:32:51
5132:32:45
6101:52:22
780:45:30
861:02:52
961:03:40
Total9115:03:14

Seasons 2, 4 and 5 get the most music, season 7 the least by far. Today it is almost common practice for TV shows to have a 1-CD release per season, thanks in no small part to labels like La La Land, and thanks to these 3 releases The X-Files has now caught up. But as the Massive Music Compilation list shows, there is more than enough material for 4 more CDs of a Volume 4! However, the latest news is that La La Land would be planning of a limited 2-CD release to wrap everything up. I hope at least Duane Barry/Ascension, Apocrypha, Never Again will be on that, not to mention episodes already covered but still have great music that was skipped, like Talitha Cumi or Redux II.

Still: Thank you La La Land!

EDIT Oct-27-2016: More good news: Day+1 sales were so good for La La Land that they are considering a full 4-CD Volume 4 after all!

Massive Music Compilation Updated

Ever since 2008, Eat The Corn has been making a list of interesting cues in Mark Snow’s music for The X-Files: the Massive Music Compilation. Now, with the great help of many contributors, the list has been greatly updated and expanded.

More Music from the X-Files: Find here cues for no less than 150 episodes, often with specific time details and sometimes with links to videos with music recordings. With the BluRay coming out in less than two months, surely better quality audio rips will be created, until we get a proper soundtrack release. Also, don’t forget to check out Snow TraX.

Following a (necessarily subjective) ratings system based on appreciation and how often cues have been requested, the “Best Of” music yet to be released is from the following episodes:

Deep Throat
Conduit
Shadows
Ghost in the Machine
GenderBender
Darkness Falls
Ascension
Dod Kalm
Apocrypha
Talitha Cumi
Paper Hearts
Never Again
Memento Mori
Redux
Redux II
The Pine-Bluff Variant
Triangle
Drive
The Rain King
Milagro
Field Trip
Salvage
Essence
Audrey Pauley

Hopefully this will serve as inspiration for La La Land Records, who have been releasing Mark Snow music with X-Files Volume 1 in 2011 and Volume 2 in 2013; Volume 3 is expected soon.

La La Land also recently released more Mark Snow music for Millennium. Since the first release in 2008 had no “Volume” label, the release of a “Volume 2” was a great surprise, and it is well-deserved. Here is the list of episodes covered in “MILLENNIUM VOL 2: LIMITED EDITION (2-CD SET) – LLLCD 1352“:

Season 1 Season 2 Season 3
Gehenna
The Judge
Force Majeure
Covenant
Lamentation
Powers, Principalities, Thrones and Dominions
Luminary
Anamnesis
The Fourth Horseman
Through a Glass Darkly
The Sound of Snow
Seven and One

Mark Snow is also composing the music for the upcoming X-Files revival. Keep that Mark Snow music coming!

MM #1: The Lowdown

Frank Black is back! The “Carter-verse” in comics form expands with the start of a 5-issue story reviving MillenniuM, January to May 2015 — with IDW promising that if it goes well more MillenniuM comics could see the light of day.

The MillenniuM comic was a certainty once we saw Frank Black pop up in the X-Files world in #16-17 of Season 10: Immaculate. After The X-Files and the Lone Gunmen, IDW continues to exploit what Ten Thirteen properties have to offer. Given the low cost of producing comics compared to a live show and given MillenniuM’s cult following, once X-Files got started in comics it was a no-brainer to do a MillenniuM comics as well. So this is less of a surprise compared to the launch of Season 10, and I won’t go about the different aspects of the monthly comic book format that are new and at times frustrating to the TV show fan, notably the 22 page limitation (see the Lowdown for XF S10#1).

However, MillenniuM was a very different beast from The X-Files and it was not necessarily a given that both series should be handled by the same person. Joe Harris proves an impressive versatility in managing to give this comic its own voice, while continuing to intertwine this present-day continuation with the past mythos of both series.

Millennium_01-prjpg_Page1

We have not seen Frank since the New Year of 2000, a long 15 years! This 5-issue arc further joins the worlds of the two series together, essentially using Mulder as the reader’s entrance into the world of Frank. Mulder will be more of a guest star rather than a main character in the rest of the arc, but this was the opportunity to enjoy another discussion between the two and an excellent cover by menton3 featuring both heroes (à la True Detective!). Harris cleverly digs up a story thread from the very pilot of XF that never got explored during the series’ entire run and gives it a MM twist, making the two series siblings separated at birth.

More after the jump.

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Revival! Revival!

So many news within two weeks! The After cancelled, the confirmation that IDW/Joe Harris will be making a Season 11 in comics after Season 10 wraps, the first sign of FOX finally expressing interest for bringing back The X-Files in some form — while Frank Black returns in comics form this week!

The After: much ado about nothing

The After, Chris Carter’s new series on Amazon, has been cancelled before it got off the ground. After the pilot aired last February, Amazon ordered a full 8-episode season in March, and the last comment we heard was in July with Carter mentioning Dante’s Inferno as an inspiration. It was to be expected, as there was absolutely no news around it and no new episodes were being produced to meet the “airing” date of the season that was expected to be spring 2015. On January 5, the only comment that accompanied the cancellation from Amazon was that:

“We have decided to not move forward with ‘The After,’ We would like to thank Chris Carter, the phenomenal cast, crew and producers for all their efforts.”

An extremely short comment. Surely a lot went on behind the scenes. So The After gets cancelled in the general indifference of the potential audience Amazon could have been counting on, the X-Files/Millennium fanbase, and of the public and critics at large. And I think it’s very unlikely that another network or producer would pick up The After and continuing it. By comparison, the other show from Georgeville TV, the same production company as The After, Sense8, has kept the buzz going and is developing to one of the most interesting series for me for 2015.

Coincidentally, and funnily enough, Spotnitz’s own project, a TV series adaptation of Philip K Dick’s “The Man in the High Castle“, aired its pilot at Amazon as part of this year’s pilot season, to huge critical acclaim — and it shows that the budget must be several times what that of The After was, Amazon is really putting a lot of weight behind this project! Being also a PKD fan I find the whole enterprise very interesting but also very risky: I don’t see how this could hold for more than a season’s worth of story.

Carter is still attached to the development of “Area 51” at AMC, a project in development since 2012, but no news there either since last March. Which is not to say that the project won’t happen eventually, such beasts have long development times.

This is a hard blow to Carter. An update from him would be more than welcome, it will be interesting to hear his own point of view on what happened on The After and how he would spin it, how this will affect him after also having another show not being picked up (Unique) and having a movie aborted at near completion (Fencewalker). I had my own very mixed opinion of The After pilot, however I found it good news that Carter would be back with something new and creative, after an extended break that’s been going on for over a decade — if you don’t count the intermission of IWTB that ended up with him at a state of exhaustion. In terms of credibility and pull for new projects in the harsh realm that is the movie & TV industry, Carter is now at a vary delicate position. It would be foolish to think that a third X-Files theatrical movie or a Millennium project by Carter would be an easy sell on Fox, even if Carter were to put all his energy to make it happen (which he hasn’t been doing). Actually, anything by Carter now would be a hard sell. I could even imagine him going back to his voluntary retirement! — but I hope he still has things left unsaid in him.

So what now?

Sequel or no sequel?

Carter has always had a theatrical movie in his mind, he has had that vision of XF as a movie franchise since 1998 and he repeated that in the 20th anniversary panel at San Diego Comic Con in 2013 (covered on EatTheCorn). Movie or nothing. It’s been two years now after the self-imposed date the XF mythology was looking at for its endgame. With chances of an ending of the XF on the big screen slimmer than ever, there have been signs that things have been changing in Carter’s mind. In the summer of 2014 Carter had “conversations” with FOX, and in December Carter and Spotnitz were discussing the future of the franchise.

I don’t live for a sequel or continuation and I most often dislike the trend of making endless sequels for sequels’ sake — however, independently of my likes or dislikes, for such a popular franchise a continuation or reboot is quite likely somewhere down the road. For years, Spotnitz has been saying that the economic case for FOX doing something — anything — with the X-Files brand name is there, it is just a matter of time. Evidently the legal suit precedents between Carter and FOX and the very mitigated success of IWTB did not help. Perhaps FOX didn’t want to entrust Carter with a full feature film and Carter didn’t want to change his stance; perhaps things are changing now at FOX; perhaps both parties have been waiting patiently for the whole thing to mature and make a revival of a classic.

xftp

Pop culture is cyclical and as the youth of yesterday becomes the trend-setters of today, what was old becomes new again, which explains the revival of design and music and pop culture franchises from the 1980s lately (Tron, Terminator, Mad Max, Star Wars, now Jurassic Park). We are now getting to the point where 1990s things will be the thing studios draw upon. It’s already happening, with one of the most exciting news of recent: the resurrection of Twin Peaks 25 years after it ended with a “third season”! And this is not your typical revival, for this is supported by the show’s original creators Mark Frost and David Lynch — something of a first in the history of television.

Television and the entertainment industry is not what it used to be twenty or ten years ago, and what might have been considered “second rate” back then is now hot. Event mini-series with season-long arcs are now a new popular format (American Horror Story, True Detective, the independent seasons of House of Cards, the 24 event). For a new XF, I’ve long supported the idea of aiming at a made-for-TV movie or direct-to-DVD movie or a limited run TV mini-series as a more accessible and realistic venue for such an endeavor, and perhaps that’s where things are headed.

The X-Files: The Revival

Speaking at the annual Television Critics Association Winter press tour at Pasadena, FOX co-chairs mentioned among many, many other things, that they’d had conversations and that they’re hopeful that X-Files would be back. They probably had no idea of what would follow. After the presentation journalists asked for more details on X-Files and in the hours and day that followed an incredible number of media outlets worldwide — even TIME and CNN! — did an article that took it nearly as granted that the X-Files was returning!
What was actually said?

During the panel (from live-tweets):

Gary Newman says “we’re hopeful” about bringing back #XFiles

Gary Newman: We’ve had conversations about #XFiles

After the panel (here and here):

Newman: “What I can say is that if this happens, it’ll be with David and Gillian reprising their roles. Chris is interest, both David and Gillian are interested. Scheduling is very difficult. David has his show, Gillian is doing something in the UK. I really don’t know how fast it can happen, but there are ongoing conversation happening.”

Walden: “You know who we’re dealing with, do you think I can elaborate???” [joke on Carter!] “Gary and I both worked through the entire run of the X-Files. It was a great experience, we’ve maintained great relationships with creator Chris Carter, Gillian, and David. We’re very hopeful. It’s hard because they’re actors who are very busy. Chris has a lot going on. So it’s about finishing those conversations.” [FOX] “would not move forward without Chris.”

So no actual mention of reboot, and it’s very clear the original stars and the creator (not to mention co-owner!) are involved: technically, that’s called a revival — although many journalists added to the confusion already existing among media lingo by mentioning a reboot.

So what ushered this?

  • Carter: The passage of time and perhaps his frustration with his new projects might have played a role for Carter to re. Surely the early discussions with FOX started before The After was cancelled, however Carter must have known about things going astray on The After for a several months and the cancellation might have accelerated things.
  • FOX: with the passage of time, old executives who might have had grudges against Carter (especially around the time his series were getting cancelled, that of Harsh Realm in particular was bitter on Carter; and during the years he had a lawsuit with FOX) are leaving and are replaced by people who have worked with or appreciate Carter. Those who announced the revival, Dana Walden and Gary Newman, are “very friendly” with Carter and grew in the business together; as recently appointed co-chairmen of Fox Television Group and CEOs they plan to rebuild the ailing FOX and steer it into new territory.
  • Precedents: the success of the 24: Live Another Day miniseries event, the announcement of the Twin Peaks revival
  • Buzz during and after the 2013 San Diego Comic Con
  • Buzz during 2014 and more recently: Kumail Nanjiani’s X-Files Files podcast, Gillian Anderson on the Nerdist podcast

How is this different from previous endless rumors and replies to nagging questions?

  • This is FOX talking. The last reaction from FOX is a few months after the release of IWTB, saying that they were waiting to hear from Carter.
  • It has been confirmed by both parties, FOX and Carter, that discussions are happening.
  • The media coverage and buzz this passing mention of preliminary conversations has generated shows to FOX there is huge interest out there. They even asked William B Davis about it!

Anderson had, a few days before only, generated some buzz thanks to a Nerdist podcast that launched the twitter trend #XFiles2015. And a few days later Duchovny weighted in saying he’s “more than happy and excited to bring it back“, and “that it will happen sooner rather than later now. We’ll see what form, how many [episodes]. Certainly I can’t nor would I be interested in doing a full season. It will be in some kind of limited form. We’re all old, we don’t have the energy for a full season.” So the interest is definitely there.

All in all, nothing is set in stone, but something will be happening! How, when?

  • With writing, pre-production, shooting, post-production ahead of us, we are looking at some time in 2016 — 8 years after IWTB!
  • Carter will be involved. There have been many voices even within hardcore XF fans against him, but it’s his property and he has specific ideas about this. If there’s a reboot later that’s another story. But, apart from long-time collaborator and seasons 8-9 mythology co-creator Spotnitz, I’d hardly expect anybody else from the old writing team to be involved. It will either be entirely Carter/Spotnitz, or them plus a newcomer — especially if a reboot is in the minds of FOX.- Short seasons are more and more the norm: the writing is tight, the shooting schedule is short for the actors, the marketing is focused. Let’s expect a 6-12 episode season.
  • XF3 would always have been about the alien colonization mythology. But even with a mini-series, the shortened length wouldn’t allow for a back-and-forth between independent episodes and mythology episodes. I expect a single story, cut in parts.
  • It would make good sense for Fox to hold on to the remastered series in HD and use the release of a BluRay boxset as promotional material for the new event/series if/when that happens.
  • Schedules have to be aligned — a burdensome development could come up if the stars are contractually tied to a specific network and can’t appear in many networks simultaneously.- Given the pop culture importance of the brand name, it’s easy to imagine Fox wanting to produce more than a one-off event and thinking ahead about continuing the franchise. It’s possible that this event would serve as both a farewell to the old characters and as an introduction to a younger group of characters that could be used in a re-launch of the series: the “old” stars are perfectly capable of holding their own, but at or approaching their fifties the most likely option is that they would form only part of the cast which would include younger actors as well. So this could be the last Mulder & Scully X-Files we see — with a reboot down the road.

The comics: bridge or alternate universe?

Meanwhile, the comics Season 10 is continuing and actually coming to an end — earlier than I expected — with #25, expected for June 2015, and with the last collected volume (Vol.5), expected for September-October 2015. However, it’s already more or less officially confirmed that after a break there will be a Season 11! With about 10,000 (physical) issues sold each month and in the Top 10 of IDW’s sales, the X-Files is a success for IDW, along with good reviews and the low production costs associated with comic books. Hence all the side publications: we’ve already had a Lone Gunmen spin-off, an origin story, an Annual and a Christmas special, and reprints of all the older Topps comics, and there’s a table board game, a short story (prose) collection and a Millennium arc to hit stores in 2015 — and potentially more coming, as editor Denton J. Tipton has said that despite a break between XF seasons there will be XF-related material coming out every month. And it’s quite obvious by now that all this is done with just Carter’s permission but essentially without any of his creative input. If it starts around the end of this year, another 25-issue season would take us well into 2017.

X-Files — and Millennium? — comics still have a long future.

However, with the new developments of an on-screen XF revival, where do these comics fit into the picture? Carter was supportive but ambiguous (how odd?!) on whether he thought of them as canon. There are three options:

  • Comics ignored: As excellent as they are, it’s hard to think that FOX executives and the creative team would “constrain” themselves with comics — they might not even constrain themselves with the live series, resulting in inconsistencies! — and there’s been a recent precedent with a much longer lived Extended Universe, with the “de-canonization” of nearly everything Star Wars since the 1980s! So the comics would continue, sadly as an alternate universe.
  • Comics taken into account: Carter and Harris agree on the comics orientation and make the events of the comics nicely dovetail into the revival event, like season 5 and FTF. Great! Although, how the schedules of the comics publication (with Season 11!) and the revival align would be a challenge.
  • Comics are neutral: Comics and revival follow their own lives, with the revival event airing during the Season 11 publication, but they end up not contradicting each other. Joe Harris is free to complexify his mythology as long as it doesn’t touch upon whatever the revival will touch upon, and fans have to fanwank events in a chronological order.
  • Comics are the source: A fourth option is that the mini-series becomes a live adaptation or is partly inspired by the comics — unlikely, but who knows? Joe Harris is also involved in feature film-making!

Even if you are bitter from the later seasons and/or IWTB… there are some exiting times ahead!

PS: I wrote most of this article days after The After was cancelled; I only had to change few things to include the FOX announcement! The XF revival has been preparing in the background throughout 2014!…

S10#16-17: The Lowdown

Surrounded by mytharc-related story arcs Pilgrims and Monica & John is the two-part Immaculate. This story dells into more spiritual-religious themes, with angels, demons and the Church, echoing such episodes as 3X11: Revelations, 5X17: All Souls and 7X09: Signs and Wonders. And just when I thought that Season 10 would get its second purely new stand-alone story, the only other being #9: Chitter, Immaculate evolves into a Ten Thirteen cross-over and a teaser for a new IDW series coming in just a couple of months! More after the jump, including the vindication of a long-standing fan campaign!

10X17_franklanceh

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News Archive: 2012

21.12.12 | On the Eve of the End of the World

Before the world changes forever according to the X-Files mythology, a quick and lists-filled look at all the X-Files comics published since 1995, in the Dossiers section!

In other news, a big shout out to the Back to Frank Black team responsible for the “Back To Frank Black” book, a recommended buy for anyone who liked “Millennium“. The work done by these fellow Ten Thirteen fans is nothing short of amazing and highly professional! The amount of interviews, the people who were interviewed (even James Wong and Glen Morgan are here, and they had not accepted to appear in the official FOX interviews for the DVDs!), the quality of many of the analyses (not all, but let’s not be so dark), this is all unprecedented for a publication dedicated to this series — and I don’t think there are many examples where fan-made publications reach this level of quality, all series or fictional universes considered.

Since Jane Goldman’s official guide to “Millennium” ended up not being published in 1997, and since the hard-to-find French book by Edouard de Teyssiere was published in 2003, this is the next best thing in the “Millennium” world. There are some very juicy information here, such as: Chris Carter considering that the launch of “Harsh Realm” indirectly condemned “Millennium” to be cancelled after its third season, the fact that there really was a fourth season planned and that the show was cancelled well after the third season finale aired, Morgan & Wong’s “The Road”-like ideas for where the series could have gone after their apocalyptic season two finale, Lance Henriksen’s ideas on what a season four or a continuation could be…

I remember when I met Chris Carter on the occasion of “I Want To Believe“‘s premiere in London in 2008, a “Millennium” TV-movie or direct-to-DVD is what I talked to him about. There are two reasons: I think the “Millennium” concept can be easily re-imagined from (nearly) scratch to fit a feature film canvas, unlike “X-Files”‘ convulted mythology and character back story; and the potential audience is smaller than that for “X-Files”, which might warrant a theatrical release. Back To Frank Black”‘s current aim at a one-shot television event at a cable channel such as FOX-owned FX is a solution that I would see happenning. all-new fan-made book on Millennium that is the impressive result of the four year old Back To Frank Black campaign, featuring a host of interviews from cast and crew (Carter, Morgan, Wong and Johannessen included)! And then before 2012 is over we should also hear the promised 4CD Volume 2 of La La Land’s soundtrack of the X-Files!

10.06.12 | We’re going to the movies!

It’s been a long time since the last update. But this one is big!

The full dossier for the Story and Visual Influences on The X-Files, covering all 202 episodes and 2 feature films, is up! There’s extensive material here, but despite the 173 references listed it’s not impossible, likely even, that more references will be identified in the future and the list enriched.

Beyond this, the year 2012 has come and is now three quarters gone, and no third X-Files feature film is to be expected by the fateful date of December 22nd 2012 defined as an essential date in its constructed mythos a whole ten years ago — how faraway that date must have seemed back then, these ten years how sufficient and full of potential!

Chris Carter, very shy of public presence since “I Want To Believe” over four years ago, is slowly reentering the world of entertainment, with one series pitch (“Unique“) that was not bough by studios and another one (“The After“) currently being sold around. Frank Spotnitz is busy launching a series of his own, in the UK, “Hunted” (BBC/Cinemax). David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson are expressing their support of a third film from time to time. People are busy in other creative projects — and they should be! — and there is a great number of ways a third X-Files film could occur in 2013 and later, as long as there’s imagination in the air, but it’s still far from being a sure thing; whether it’s even desirable is up to each one’s sensibilities.

Otherwise, the biggest news is the release of “Back To Frank Black“, an all-new fan-made book on Millennium that is the impressive result of the four year old Back To Frank Black campaign, featuring a host of interviews from cast and crew (Carter, Morgan, Wong and Johannessen included)! And then before 2012 is over we should also hear the promised 4CD Volume 2 of La La Land’s soundtrack of the X-Files!