Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.
May 06, 2023 20:11
A nice little interview with @[100057694884330:2048:Frank Spotnitz] from a month ago.
Midway through he talks about the experience of being in #TheXFiles writers staff. It sounds both like a dream job and like a nightmare, you gave it your all or you’re out. I can understand why those who lived through it have a devotion to the captain of the ship Chris Carter and feel a very strong bond with each other. And I can also understand why the writers group were seen as a sort of single gentlemen’s club:
- Spotnitz and Carter first talked toward the end of the first season. Mid-season 2, Spotnitz was recruited directly, straight out of film school, not as freelance, but to come on staff, to replace the best writers who were leaving (Morgan and Wong)!
- Carter “was a very demanding boss, it was a very competitive environment”. “It was exactly the show for me, having watched #startrek and The #twilightzone as a kid, I got it.”
- In 3 years he got from staff writer to executive producer, from the bottom to the top.
- The best things about Carter were “his ruthless intelligence and his incredible ambition”. “It could not be good enough, he demanded everybody give their best, if it wasn’t enough you’d leave [at] 11 at night.” “For 8 years I lived and breathed The X-Files.” The obsessed writer in Milagro was him, “I spent more time thinking about these fictitious [sic] characters than any real person in my real life.”
- Carter demanded and insisted, and that’s why all those writers did all this good work. “It wasn’t always fun, it was certainly stressful.”
https://www.spreaker.com/user/10740198/eyewitness-history-frank-spotnitz-with-a
May 12, 2023 21:03
@[100050989916643:2048:The Companion] has an exclusive #TheXFiles reunion discussion between @[100057694884330:2048:Frank Spotnitz], Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish! (Well, the actual recording was made in July 2022 and was available to Companion patrons – more TXF and other content is available there!).
Podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/s/a502d03e
Video: https://www.thecompanion.app/the-x-files-doggett-reyes-reunion-video/
As usual, a summary of what was said:
This is the first time they all meet since show ended, approximately.
FS: in preparation for this interview, it’s the first time he rewatched s8-9 episodes in 20 years.
The casting process:
- RP didn’t audition, he met with CC and FS, and read for the network with Rick Millikan.
- AG auditioned with Rick, then tested for the network; she was nervous, remembers CC didn’t want her to wear a belt and liked the pants she was wearing specifically, and the adjective for Reyes was “sunny”.
Shooting TXF:
- RP remembers joining a juggernaut, FS was very calming, there were a lot in the fanbase who were not happy.
- RP wanted to work in network TV after working on The Sopranos.
- AG remembers the production was a family, it was a machine of chaos and beauty.
- FS: they consciously crafted characters to respond to fans’ expectations that this is not M&S.
- RP: Doggett is his favourite character he’s played, close with Scorpion.
- AG: Doggett was a harbinger of new masculinity, tough but with a heart of gold.
- FS: “all TXF characters were emotionally repressed”.
- AG: in all characters there are restraints.
- FS: CC had said you don’t write the emotion in the script, you let the actors play the emotion.
- FS: with new characters there were new opportunities, storytelling changed in the final 2 seasons, the show took a Twilight Zone feel.
- FS: while making Alone he realised that directing is the best job, he had the same experience with Daemonicus.
- Thanks are given to Tony Wharmby, John Shiban, Vince Gilligan, Michelle McLaren.
- Kim Manners wanted to direct John Doe so bad, but schedules resulted in Michelle McLaren getting it.
- RP remembers meeting DD in his trailer.
- FS: in William’s birth scene, “Reyes is like sister to Scully”.
- AG: in conventions, everybody asks her to do whale songs. She doesn’t speak Spanish, she learnt some for John Doe.
- RP & AG remember the long working hours of the “Fraturdays”.
- FS remembers his wife Melissa was responsible for AG meeting her husband Wade (Allen), RP remembers himself introducing them. Wade was RP’s “krav maga guy”, he was a production assistant on TXF.
- RP’s son Sam was born during his first episodes on TXF. He remembers shooting Within/Without in the desert in Borrego Springs (they say it’s the same place as William’s birth place [actually no, but The Truth was also filmed there]), his wife Barbara was very pregnant, it was very hot. He remembers calling Michelle McLaren to say he would miss shooting because she was delivering. He remembers Barbara shooting Release.
- RP has been friends with Lance Henriksen since 1989.
- FS: CC was the first to arrive and the last to leave. Kim Manners poured his heart and soul in it, he never got jaded.
There was no ad libbing on TXF, everything was scripted. There were read throughs during lunch with the cast. There was even ADR during lunch breaks. - AG: TXF had money and time, so they could rehearse a bit, it is not the case any more in modern productions.
Favourites:
- RP: Via Negativa
- AG: 4D, Audrey Pauley
- FS: Via Negativa was inspired by a dream where he squeezes toothpaste and blood comes out, and he didn’t know what was reality any more. He loved Redrum, 4D, Audrey Pauley, Release.
The original ending and the original plans:
- FS: remembers shooting The Truth, Reyes’ monologue “was my last gift to TXF”.
- AG: there was a lot of frustration then.
- FS remembers a New York Times Magazine articles 2 weeks after 9/11 saying that TXF was no longer “in” but “out” and ratings were down. When the show ended there was a planned movie franchise, they had planned multiple storylines with Mulder, Scully, Doggett, Reyes; but the CC/Fox lawsuit dragged for 5 years and after that Fox wanted no aliens, only a small monster of the week movie.
- RP remembers shooting in Stage 7 (Scary Monsters?) and CC came, he wanted RP to be the first to know they were not returning, RP was devastated, if they were not cancelled he would have done it forever.
On the revival:
- RP: Joel McHale’s monologue in My Struggle 1 was “right on”, it was a precursor to today’s world.
- FS: “the revival was tough for me”, he wanted to do it but he couldn’t get involved.
- RP was asked in the revival and he wanted to do it but he was contractually engaged elsewhere.
- AG was happy to go back, but her role didn’t make sense, “I didn’t understand what I was doing”, FS was missed.
- Reyes smoking Morleys in her first episode then turning to the dark side in the revival: that was not in FS’s mind at the time, but certainly CC thought about that in the revival. Reyes was conceived to be more relaxed and human as a character.
On where they are now:
- AG imagines Doggett and Reyes still “orbiting each other”, but not together.
- RP: TXF had values, the country is looking for that kind of leadership.
- FS: today, Reyes would be high up in the FBI hierarchy. Doggett would have left the FBI in disgust. Reyes would like Doggett back. Season 12 would start with Doggett being called back.
- FS: all 4 characters had integrity. “There’s a hunger for values, things that unite right and left”. What TXF stands for is relevant right now.
May 17, 2023 15:08
YES! “#TheXFiles: The Official Archives Volume II: Extraterrestrial Activity and the Syndicate” by Paul Terry Cellarscape will be out 21 Dec 2023! Can’t wait to see mythology-related props up close!
“A fully authorized, richly illustrated inside look at the case files of Mulder and Scully’s encounters with extraterrestrial activity and the Syndicate.
Following the revelations of the cases declassified in The X-Files: The Official Archives: Cryptids, Biological Anomalies, and Parapsychic Phenomena comes this vital second volume of top-secret X-files. The X-Files: The Official Archives: Volume II: Extraterrestrial Activity and the Syndicate details Agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder’s close encounters with alien beings and exposes the secrets of the shadowy Syndicate. Featuring UFOs, little green men, and the conspiracies to hide them from the public, these richly detailed and painstakingly re-created case files open up the X-Files universe like never before. These vital cases served as the backbone to the cult television series and provided a powerful throughline and emotional lifeline for Agent Mulder. Now, through archival imagery and unredacted reports, fans can experience firsthand the thrills of some of the series’ most beloved episodes, including “Deep Throat,” “Jose Chung’s from Outer Space,” “Fight the Future,” “Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man,” and many more.”
(no image yet – this is Volume 1)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/X-Files-Official-Archives-Extraterrestrial-Syndicate/dp/1419771396/
May 22, 2023 17:06
[SPANISH] Soy un gran fan de la música de #TheXFiles. En éste gran podcast se habla en detalles del soundtrack que se estrenó en 1996, “Songs in the Key of X” y fue un gran placer escuchar todo eso — Nick Cave, Foo Fighters, Soul Coughing… Pero NO se habla en bien de la música monumental de Mark Snow. Así que no voy a hacer la promoción de este episodio que se puede escuchar aquí:
May 23, 2023 13:24
[SPANISH] Sigue el podcast Aguante Mulder sobre la música de #TheXFiles, esta vez sobre la música de las dos películas, sobre todo “The Album” de Fight the Future (con Filter, Foo Fighters, y sobre todo mi favorito, el instrumental de Noel Gallagher, Teotihuacan!) pero también con las algunas canciones de I Want To Believe. De nuevo, se habla poco de Mark Snow, pero es un placer escuchar una discusión sobre estos productos derivados.
PD: en Eat The Corn analizamos la explicación de toda la mitología por Chris Carter al final del CD de FTF aquí: http://www.eatthecorn.com/1013-the-truth-revealed/
