[FRENCH] Podcast suite avec une saison 8 qui décidément ne fait pas l’unanimité! Par rapport à l’accueil de l’époque de la 1re diffusion qui était plutôt mitigé, cette saison a depuis conquis beaucoup de fans, même réhabilitée comme une des meilleures saisons. Je reste encore assez sceptique, je dois reconnaître qu’elle a beaucoup de qualités mais aussi beaucoup de défauts, que ce soit pour la mythologie ou pour les indépendants.
In a limited Los Angeles exhibition entirely dedicated to his artwork, Chris Carter mentioned the possibility of a The X-Files reboot that is rumoured to be at early planning stages.
Will you be part of “The X-Files” reboot? “I wouldn’t. Only as a cheerleader. They don’t need my blessing. 20th Century Fox and Disney owns the show. They are free to do with it what they believe. I’m honored that they came to me and asked me, not for my permission, but my blessing.”
You’ve spoken to Coogler about it? “I’m not supposed to be talking about it, according to Disney. But I’ll tell you, yes. I’ve had a conversation with him. Yes, he likes to go with a diverse cast. And he’s got some good ideas.”
But you’re not interested in doing another revival of “The X-Files” yourself? “Oh, if David [Duchovny] and Gillian [Anderson] wanted to do it again. Yeah, probably, then I would be inspired.”
What this tells me is that the ‘reboot’ would be an in-universe continuation of the story with a new cast and new characters, not a recast of the Mulder and Scully characters. This would leave space for DD & GA to make guest appearances in that spin-off, and leave Carter the possibility to work again with DD & GA in a third revival. If any of that ever happens. Interesting that presently Carter only gives his “blessing”, not permission — it used to be that he seemed to be in control of anything with the TXF name on it. Still no official word from Disney on this, so all of this is in the very early stages, and might not materialize at all.
Also, he’s also working in script writing: “I’m working on two different things that I’m very excited about, so maybe some projects will appear. I’m working on one with my wife, which is really exciting. We only worked together once. We haven’t worked together since the mid-1980s when we wrote and produced a Disney Sunday movie together.” I hope this works out!
What else? There is a small TXF-related exhibit, with in particular the original casting sheets for Mulder and Scully dated February 22 and March 5 1993, where one can see who else auditioned for the roles! (Claudia Christian! After Babylon 5 “The Gathering” and before season 1!) Next to DD, Carter has written “Yes” and next to GA, “Test”.
And in the video promoting the event, there is a board with cards similar to the ones used to break down the story for an episode, but it’s none of the Ten Thirteen shows produced until now (including The After). There are characters called Althea, Cassandra, Rafe, Annette, Shin… Could this be the project he’s working on with his wife? A cancelled project?
Of course, TXF is what everybody wants to hear about. But the main attraction here is Carter’s art. He did a lot of pottery in the past, but the pieces here are of a different kind. There’s a lot of mixed media large-format pieces with prominent text. I really like the typewriter piece (which incorporates visual elements from TXF). The rest is more abstract. He mentions: “I can tell you [my] two main influences. And when you look at some of the pieces, you’ll see the connection. Ed Rucha and Jenny Holzer. And I have to say to some extent, Barbara Kruger.” If you look up these artists, you can definitely tell.
Happy birthday to Dana Katherine Scully, born on February 23, 1964! She has reached the round and respectable age of 60. By now she must have retired from the FBI, after becoming FBI Director! Incredible that her abduction back in season 2 was 30 years ago, which is now just at the mid-point in her life…
The X-Files reference in the wild! This is from Zerocalcare: “Ce vojo crede” in good Roman — meaning “voglio crederci” everywhere else in Italy. Both his animated series in Netflix I highly recommend! (Strappare lungo i bordi, Questo mondo non mi renderà cattivo) #romaantifascista
From yesterday’s Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards, where David Nutter got a lifetime achievement award! And a part of his speech, where he talks about directing with Parkinson’s. Also present were David Duchovny and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) but also Rob McLachlan (Millennium cinematographer), Chris Carter, Jim Wong, Glen Morgan & Kristen Cloke.
Nutter directed *loads* of things. For us, he directed among Ten Thirteen’s best hours:
In TXF s1-3: Ice – Beyond the Sea – Lazarus – Shapes – Tooms – Roland – Little Green Men – Blood – 3 – Firewalker – Irresistible – Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose – 2Shy – Nisei – Revelations
In Millennium s1: Pilot – Gehenna – 522666 – Loin Like a Hunting Flame
The X-Files video game that never was! Chris Carter had mentioned that a video game was in preparation in a couple of past interviews, but we all assumed he meant the short-lived Android-based “Deep State”. Apparently, there was a big game in development around the time of the revival but it never came to completion. The game developer Nico Augusto, also a TXF fan and a UFO/paranormal enthusiast, provided lots of behind the scenes details and visuals. I see no reason to doubt his claims.
– The game development was to be announced during the airing of the revival / season 10 [i.e., 2016].
– Small French/Californian company Any Arts Production was chosen by Fox to develop the game in the summer of 2015.
– A playable demo was created to promote the project to executives and investors, with case files graphics, a 3D model of the XF office and a night scene in the woods where Scully is abducted by a ray of light.
– For PS4/XBox; third view, player would be Mulder; stealth investigative game, some chases and action; taking gameplay/mood inspiration from Alan Wake, Heavy Rain, Uncharted; running on Unreal Engine.
– Intended plot: Scully dies during an investigation; Mulder somehow tracks down the scientist from “Synchrony” in order to be able to travel back in time and save Scully; Mulder finds himself travelling all over the timeline, revisiting past cases, such as “The Host” or the Mulder cottage in Quonochontaug. [Sounds completely crazy, but it allows the player to re-live some of the series’ past, which ticks many boxes]
– Approved by all parties involved, including Fox Interactive and Chris Carter. Some names from the video game industry that were involved: John Melchior, David Stelzer.
– Voice actors were approached and agreed in principle, including Duchovny (hard to get!), Anderson, Pileggi.
– The budget was going to be some $ 35 million [which is not small for a game based on an old IP like TXF!] and was going to be developed over an estimated 3.5 years before release.
– But Fox just gave the license, they were not going to finance it directly [a classic move by current-day standards, subcontract all the risk!…]; the financing setup was going to be the role for other entities. The development very slowly fell apart when sufficient funds could not be gathered together to secure the necessary budget.
I am not a big video game player but this would have been a cool thing to witness — although I played *a lot* the old TXF game on PC, so maybe I was the target group too? With the Fox/Disney reshuffle and the revival being less successful than planned (probably?), it looks like any plans for another TXF video game are shelved.
