Happening in Phile Fest right now – celebrating 30 years of The X-Files!
https://twitter.com/admiralty_xfd/status/1700251228440314148
Sep
01
2023
Social media archive: 2023 (part 6)
Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.
Jul 25, 2023 16:50
Another excellent details-filled #TheXFiles interview by @[195561691234370:274:Sammensværgelsen – en dansk X-Files podcast] with an important behind the scenes person, David Gauthier — the mechanical special effects supervisor (i.e., practical on-set stuff, not visual/digital effects) for the first five years in Vancouver and again for the second film.
Episodes mentioned:
- early episodes: use of punctured tubes made of plastic bags and smoke machines in the forest, this made the defining look of the show!
- the move from very small studios in the first six episode to Fox’s North Shore Vancouver studios and eventually occupying all of that
- again, how Chris Carter controlled everything and how great it was to work with him + how amazing all the writers were, and Rob Bowman, Dan Sackheim, David Nutter
- “Ice”: freezing and reanimating meal worms
- “Fire”: dealing with fire on set
- “The Host”: how they shot the Flukeman inside the sewage pipes, and in a sewage plant
- “Exelsis Dei”: the flooded hospital room scene
- “End Game”: truckloads of ice for the submarine conning tower scene
- “Soft Light”: meeting Vince Gilligan
- “Paper Clip”: sizes of light trusses for the UFO scene
- “DPO”: lightning made out of steel meshes and lights
- “731”: making a memorabilia out of an old bell from the train wagon they used
- “Piper Maru”: getting the newtsuit from a diving company next door to the studios, effect of the black oil in the eye (of course, the French diver was named after him)
- “Home”: Kim Manners saying he’d never find work again after shooting the teaser
- “Terma”: complexities of the oil well explosion
- “Tempus Fugit/Max”: getting the script ahead of time, constructing the plane, mechanics of the abduction scene, scuba diving with DD
- “Zero Sum”: use of painted pop corn for the bees flying inside a room
- “Gethsemane”: real snow and freezing temperatures in a warehouse for the Yukon camping scenes
- “Kill Switch”: trailer explosion, robots design inspired by NASA
- “Patient X/The Red and the Black”: UFO crash, setting people on fire
- “Folie à Deux”: how the man in suit approach didn’t work
- “I Want to Believe”: shooting Mulder’s car crash in the snow, using fake ice for the surgery scenes
- not involved in the revival, it wouldn’t have been the same after all these years
https://sammensvaergelsen.libsyn.com/website/interview-david-gauthier-special-effects
Jul 30, 2023 16:09
15 years already since the release of the second #TheXFiles film, “I Want To Believe”! The show is 30 years old, and it’s hard to believe that as much time has passed between the pilot and IWTB as between IWTB and today… My opinion on that film has not changed much since, there are certainly many things I appreciate — such as the Millenniumistic photography, the Frankenstein aspects of the story, some mythic elements (descent to the underworld), Mark Snow’s music — but the whole thing doesn’t gel. It would have been fine if TXF had made one film every couple of years or so, but as an attempt to relaunch the brand it didn’t meet expectations. Not horrible, not a masterpiece.
Still, I have good memories of winning tickets to the premiere via Spotnitz’s Big Light, attending the July 30 premiere in London, interacting with many fans there from all over Europe, seeing CC/FS/DD/GA up close — and listening to this blockbuster-like remix of the main theme by UNKLE, over and over again while waiting to get in the theatre! (In the meet and greet, CC was asking if somebody from UNKLE was in the audience, I don’t know if they found each other or not.) Let’s celebrate “XF2”!
Aug 05, 2023 13:23
#TheXFiles 1997 soundtrack Songs in the Key of X is out in vinyl!
Aug 09, 2023 21:49
Here’s a new and different #TheXFiles podcast, “Fandom X Archive”, dedicated on chronicling the early days of the XF fandom! A deep dive in the early to mid 1990s, with alt.tv.x-files newsgroups and the like… I love such academic/fannish stuff, somewhat due to nostalgia! In part, I developed Eat the Corn’s interview database as an archival resource to support such endeavours.
https://aliensupersoldier.com/?p=1839
Aug 18, 2023 18:02
One thing I like in #TheXFiles is the cinematic atmosphere, and this is what these little “no context” videos provide: short clips from episodes not focused on the actors but on these moments between when the plot happens, a still camera fade in or a moving crane shot, when we linger on a setting, a forest, an object, a mood…
Season 4:
Full playlist with seasons 1-7: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ5SdDogH5i2ly4Vrzll6XZTmQji0CNsb
Aug 24, 2023 14:40
#aphextwin’s ambient electronic track “Windowsill” sounds…quite a bit like #TheXFiles main theme. And sure enough I checked, this track was released some 6 months after the TXF pilot aired, in March 1994!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selected_Ambient_Works_Volume_II
Aug 29, 2023 23:07
Before #TheXFiles there was the #twilightzone! @[100057694884330:2048:Frank Spotnitz] talked to the @[100064733644766:2048:Rod Serling Memorial Foundation] about how TZ was a big influence on TXF and on pretty much anything on television in the past 60 years, and how we should celebrate Serling’s unique brand of humanistic storytelling. Interview runs from 2:06:50 to 2:51:50. What’s *your* favourite TZ episode? (And yes I’m pretty sure it was not the Dusky Realm.)
https://www.facebook.com/RSMemorialFoundation/videos/3499712833614340
Sep 01, 2023 19:56
A new interview with Dan Sackheim by @[195561691234370:274:Sammensværgelsen – en dansk X-Files podcast]! He was a producer and director at key moments of #TheXFiles: he helped set the tone of the show from the very beginning and he produced the first movie. He is quite candid and you can hear his love and respect for Carter and the show. Highlights:
Launching TXF:
- Carter was playing softball with Michael Duggan [later a writer/producer in Millennium s3], Duggan set up a meeting for Carter to first meet Sackheim.
- Carter was convinced to hire Sackheim when he referred to Errol Morris’ documentary “The Thin Blue Line”, which had inspired Carter when he was thinking of the visual identity of the show.
- Carter was concerned that the director of the pilot episode was not creative enough, he wanted a producer with a sense of visual acumen.
- Sackheim remembers that during the shooting of the pilot, a key grip fell into a grave hole and broke his leg.
- Shooting Deep Throat, Conduit, The Host (which he finds silly)…
- Learning from Carter the importance of visual storytelling, the importance of telling a story from a point of view.
Fight the Future:
- He read the script on Carter’s computer when Carter was trying to convince him to produce it, he accepted in exchange of him and Carter developing Harsh Realm!
- It was the first movie he was producing, he doesn’t know why Carter chose him! He learnt on the spot, made mistakes.
- Only 8 weeks of prep was very challenging.
- Memories from shooting FTF: David frustrated at Martin Landau missing his lines during the alley scene, using fake ice, improvising with the prosthetics of the aliens, shooting inserts with the second unit, David frustrated shooting the scenes with the bees (“the bees have a better union than I do!”), they ended up using CGI bees and could have done shooting without real bees (!), the ice stage was under hot lights and the ice was melting, there were negotiations with the “Independence Day” producers to allow to show Mulder peeing below the poster, they nicknamed the Antarctica base “Ice Station Zebra” [after the 1960s espionage thriller].
- There were conversations that if there was going to be a sequel then he might direct it.
TXF s5+ and Harsh Realm:
- In early seasons things were malleable, by the time he returned in s5 things were very fixed.
- Shooting Kitsunegari, SR819 (having to play marriage therapist between Mitch and Arlene!)…
- He spent a lot of time in the editing room during s6-7 and for #Millennium and #HarshRealm. [He also directed the excellent MM episode Closure]
- He recut IWTB with Carter, Spotnitz and the editor, it was a small budget. [He is uncredited, first time I hear of this!]
- He was asked to join the revival, but didn’t want to do what he had already done.
- A change in the Fox network hierarchy resulted in Harsh Realm being cancelled.
- In 2013, he, Carter and Spotnitz discussed rebooting Harsh Realm (!) — it would have been a different show, but they couldn’t agree on a common vision, on how to make the virtual stakes real. [This is the first I hear of this, and I would have loved it if this would have been made!…]
https://sammensvaergelsen.libsyn.com/website/interview-dan-sackheim
Jul
18
2023
Social media archive: 2023 (part 5)
Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.
May 29, 2023 18:44
The first interview ever with Brad Follmer, courtesy of @[100064600333206:2048:The X-Cast\: An X-Files Podcast]! He was Chris Carter’s assistant on #TheXFiles from mid-season 7 (the first episode he is credited in is First Person Shooter) to season 9, and he is credited as staff writer in season 11. Unfortunately the sound quality is not good, but here are the key takeaways:
- The first episode he watched was X-Cops, preparing for an interview to get a job on the show; he still hasn’t watched the entire series.
- Cary Elwes’ character was named after him. Elwes used to call on the phone: “This is Brad Follmer calling, is this Brad Follmer?”
- He remembers Burt Reynolds being on set shooting the casino scenes for Improbable. After shooting, Reynolds sent Carter *half* an award he got (People’s Choice Award for Evening Shade).
- The Mulder family (Carter’s mother’s family) were dairy farmers. Carter knew what time every Starbucks in LA West Side opened and he was always the first one in the office every morning.
- David Duchovny (unclear if it was him because of the audio?) used to call to ask for scripts to auction off, he gave Follmer the nickname Bartleby, from the Herman Melville short story about a clerk who says when asked to do tasks: “I would prefer not to”.
- The Lone Gunmen pilot (the one about a plane crashing into the WTC made 6 months before 9/11) was being prepared around the time Carter and Spotnitz were called on a CIA outreach program to discuss potential national security threats with Hollywood writers, but because of scheduling they couldn’t attend.
- Wade Allen was Carter’s personal trainer, Carter thought that Annabeth Gish could do some training, and that’s how she met Wade, they later married.
- Shooting Requiem: Carter was very secretive about the ending, he wrote the last pages the day of the shooting, he was driving to the shooting with 3 copies of the last pages of the script on a Friday night, to Big Bear mountain, a 2-3 hours drive from LA but with traffic, with the crew waiting.
- Carter’s research question for The Truth: what’s the government’s most secret facility?
- Carter’s research question for Fight Club: what are other nicknames for the boxing ring, like the squared circle? Via his mother, Follmer found Mohamed Ali’s trainer Angelo Dundee to ask!
- Follmer and Gabe Rotter did write the script for an episode for season 10, initially as a back-up in case Carter didn’t manage to do his 3 episodes – about fungi causing zombies (audio unclear?). They boarded it, they wrote a draft, then Duchovny was going to be available only for limited days so they rewrote it, then Anderson was going to be available for less days so they rewrote. Things were very close to Carter directing it, they tried to shoehorn it to be produced as a 7th episode. When season 11 was made, there were other ideas, so it was never made.
- Since the revival, Follmer has worked with Carter, one has helped the other in projects, and he has worked with Gabe Rotter and Ben Van Allen on various projects that haven’t materialised yet.
May 30, 2023 15:24
[SPANISH] Estos primeros 12 a 16 números del cómic, de Stefan Petrucha (yo digo Petruka, no sé) y Charlie Adlard, fueron unas de las primeras cosas que encontré como fan de #TheXFiles, y todavía quedan siendo unas de mis cosas favoritas que produjo la “marca” TXF! En éste podcast se habla mucho de esos, y de varios detalles sabrosos de cómo se hicieron. Es verdad que se adelantaron con muchas cosas que hizo la serie después (Tunguska, Unruhe, Field Trip…yo añadiría Demons y José Chung con lo del control de la mente y de no saber que era la verdad y que no).
May 31, 2023 14:01
Sad news – John Beasley, Emma Hollis’ father in 3 episodes of Millennium, has passed away. I also knew him from some episodes of Treme.
https://tvline.com/2023/05/30/john-beasley-dead-cause-of-death-everwood-irv-harper-dies/
Jun 08, 2023 15:44
Frank Spotnitz was interviewed following yet another “whistleblower” story in the news related to UFOs secrecy in the US intelligence. (Actual revelation? Fake news? Useful idiot? True believer? Who knows?)
The site needs a VPN to be seen by European visitors… Here’s what it says:
“The X-Files” producer Frank Spotnitz told NewsNation’s “Banfield” he’s a skeptic of the military whistleblower’s secret UFO claims but he would “love to be convinced.” Spotnitz said the claims could have a positive, profound effect on humanity. “Aliens are like trying to prove there’s a God. If you could, that would have profound effects on everything,” Spotnitz said. “It would change our understanding of each other. … It might bring us closer together because there’d be this other threat that’s not human. We’re always looking for the bad guy, but in this case, it wouldn’t be other people, it’d be someone else out there.” Spotnitz also revealed that he’s still in touch with Chris Carter, producer for “The X-Files.” Spotnitz said that Carter is less skeptical than he is about the recent claims.
(Thanks Adam Silva)
https://www.newsnationnow.com/banfield/ufo-claims-could-be-positive-x-files-e-p/
Jun 19, 2023 21:09
25 years since the absolute #TheXFiles summer blockbuster, whose tagline became the title, “Fight The Future”. 25 YEARS! Here’s the trailer, hard to describe the excitement when this first aired on TV and I recorded it on VHS.
Some trivia:
- the trailer was originally released 21 November 1997, well in advance and barely after principal photography had finished! In theaters, it premiered with… “Mortal Kombat” (lol) and “Alien: Resurrection” (https://groups.google.com/g/alt.tv.x-files/c/Ma4PJv2f8rE/m/JuZM7qgJsYkJ)
- the music used toward the end is from the soundtrack to… Baz Luhrman’s “Romeo+Juliet”, by Nellee Hooper/Craig Armstrong/Marius de Vries, track “Escape from Mantua” (https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ_Wiuwz67I)
- the trailer saw the debut of the modified TXF logo, allegedly because “20th Century Fox” and “Fox TV Studios” wanted to differentiate their products.
Jun 29, 2023 19:38
A nice interview with Chris Carter (CC) from last week, with #TheXFiles Diaries, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of the Fight the Future (FTF) film.
https://xfilesdiaries.libsyn.com/127-fight-the-future-with-chris-carter
Some well-known stories, but also some new information, summarized here [plus my comments]:
- Dori (CC’s wife) and Mary Astadourian (Ten Thirteen vice-president and CC’s assistant) were in the Hawaii trip together with CC and Frank Spotnitz on Christmas 1996, when they came up with the storyline for FTF [who took notes, I wonder? :D]
- The FTF story was the only story they developed for the film, that’s all they had time for
- CC is happy that FTF was made on budget, Fox was scrutinizing them carefully, all the more because James Cameron’s Titanic was going way over budget!
- The feature and TV business branches of Fox didn’t talk to each other: the second unit (was shooting ice scenes) got news that the movie was greenlit before CC knew of it!
- CC watched Mission: Impossible as a kid, that’s where he knew Martin Landau from
- Strughold, Bronschweig, Kurtzweil: the movie’s German names are just a coincidence [so much for reading into that…]
- CC’s grandfather (Carl Gerhard Busch) was German
- Throughout the series, CC didn’t like the way that DD ate sunflower seeds
- The almost kiss in the middle and the mouth to mouth scene at the end, there was no intended correlation, these were coincidences [so much for reading into these two scenes rhyming…]
- DD kind of contributed with the idea of a love triangle between Mulder-Scully-Fowley [and CC ran with it!]
- CC confirms that the Well-Manicured Man committed suicide [because he was done for, and to give Mulder a head start – if anyone was still doubting that]
- For those wondering about Washington DC geography: when Mulder tells the taxi to go to Arlington, he’s heading to another bar
- During the construction of the geodesic domes in the ice field, a worker spent the night in one of them, and he says that there was a polar bear around
- Mark Snow’s wife is the one whose whistle can be heard at the end of the IWTB soundtrack
- The Foo Fighters were going to play at the FTF premiere after-party but they cancelled at the last minute
- Mulder peed *below* the Independence Day poster (not *on*), this was done as an appreciation of the movie [my life is ruined!]
Jul 18, 2023 18:04
A mini-#TheXFiles reunion at the WGA & SAG-AFTRA strike picket line in front of Fox studios today, where the series was shot! #WGAstrike #SAGAFTRAStrike solidarity! David Duchovny, Annabeth Gish, Rob Bowman, John Shiban, Steven Maeda, Daniel Arkin, Tom Schnauz and more were there — with slogans like “the residuals are out there”! Here’s an interview with director Rob Bowman: “I’m here to support my brothers and sisters in the Writers Guild. If somebody compliments something I’ve done, I always say, ‘I get my inspiration from the script.’
+ more here:
https://www.givememyremote.com/remote/2023/07/17/the-x-files-reunion-wga-sag-aftra-strike-david-duchovny-rob-bowman/
https://deadline.com/2023/07/actors-strike-david-duchovny-x-files-reunion-rosario-dawson-hilary-duff-1235440044/
https://tvline.com/news/david-duchovny-picket-sign-the-x-files-the-residuals-are-out-there-strike-1235014917/
https://twitter.com/possumlives/status/1681049151654748160
May
23
2023
Social media archive: 2023 (part 4)
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: https://www.eatthecorn.com/1013-the-truth-revealed/
May
05
2023
Social media archive: 2023 (part 3)
Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.
Apr 06, 2023 19:54
New Chris Carter interview, courtesy of the Conspiracy podcast @[195561691234370:274:Sammensværgelsen – en dansk X-Files podcast]!
As usual, summary below [and my comments]:
- Was the original plan to stop #TheXFiles after 5 seasons and do a movie franchise after? “No”. [Ha! Persistent rumour has been shot down. So this information, as old as the internet, must only refer to the objective of making enough episodes to go to syndication, not anything related to the mythology or long-term planning.]
- CC reminisces about making the first movie (25 years ago!). They didn’t try to bring Armin Mueller-Stahl (Strughold) back after the film in season 6 because he lives in Europe; CC did think of him for season 11 (hence the role of Mr Y was created).
- CC recently wrote something with Terry O’Quinn (Peter Watts in Millennium, among others) in mind for a role, but he’s busy. [CC seems to have plenty of projects, but nothing has materialized yet.]
- The mix of episodic-serialized was conceived from the beginning before the pilot was made.
- CC is still very proud of “Duane Barry”, the first episode he directed. He used David Nutter’s method of using drawings for planning the blocking of scenes.
- CC’s “Syzygy” was “directly inspired” by Darin Morgan’s “Humbug”. [Obvious, but finally, a direct confirmation!]
- He no longer remembers the plans he and Spotnitz had for films after season 9 regarding the 2012 and the alien invasion. [So much information about all this is now water under the bridge…]
- Again, CC reiterates that he never imagined that “My Struggle IV” would be the finale of the show.
- CC let the cat out of the bag with that interview about the Ryan Coogler remount of TXF, Fox TV actually wants to make a big announcement about it. [So Disney is very much serious about this project. I expect we’ll know more not too long from now.]
- Fox/Disney entirely owns TXF, so they can do whatever they like, they just have been kind enough to be collaborative with CC in their decisions up to now. [Contrary to what I thought, CC/Ten Thirteen doesn’t co-own the brand! Perhaps CC’s involvement is good news in this case.]
- CC cancelled the “Albuquerque” TXF animated project because he couldn’t imagine it without Mulder and Scully. [But wouldn’t Coogler’s re-whatever be without M&S too? Or is Coogler planning to recast M&S?]
- CC and Glen Morgan discussed at length making a prequel around the Cigarette-Smoking Man shortly after season 11, Morgan pitched it, but couldn’t convince Fox about it. [I can’t imagine what this would look like! Unreliable narrator like in “Musings”? Mythology-only with historical persons cameos like Dark Skies? Sound like a mythology fan’s wet dream, but I can’t imagine it being more than a limited series.]
- CC and Glen Morgan discussed at length doing a reboot of #Millennium, but “we put that on the back burner, it’s closed right now”. [Impressive, but disappointing, and he didn’t expand on why they abandoned it. Interesting that Carter & Morgan worked together on all these potential projects! I’m curious if a MM reboot could have worked — Carter has used the word ‘reboot’ for the TXF revival as well, so they might have had a MM revival in mind with Lance Henriksen, now 82, as old as Patrick Stewart in Star Trek Picard. Possible, but also an extremely uphill battle.]
https://sammensvaergelsen.libsyn.com/website/interview-chris-carter-2
Apr 13, 2023 10:11
[FRENCH] Podcast sur le film #TheXFiles, sorti il y a quand même 25 ans ! A l’époque, l’excitation était à son comble. Habitant en Europe, le film était sorti des mois après les Etats-Unis, et j’avais été spoilé sur une grande partie des révélations mythologiques en lisant des magazines.
https://podcast.ausha.co/le-coin-pop/the-x-files-fight-the-future-le-premier-film
May 05, 2023 20:23
Coverage of a January interview with Chris Carter (catching up on my backlog) from @[100064600333206:2048:The X-Cast\: An X-Files Podcast]!
A summary and highlights below [with my comments]:
About #TheXFiles:
- DD & GA’s casting process with Randy Stone: they were both CC’s first choices. On the casting sheets, CC wrote for DD “yes”, for GA “test”. CC stuck to his guns to cast GA, there was a second actress that the network wanted. [We will probably never know who that was!]
- Their chemistry was obvious already from shooting that first scene in the basement office.
- Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish both got their roles thanks to their previous work, they didn’t actually read for their parts. Fire in the Sky was a precursor to TXF and CC cast RP because of it.
- On the pilot: there are tweaks he could make to it; a comedic bit that he could have left in (during the driving scene, Mulder makes a joke about a bagel), but he wanted the show to be dramatic before comedic; he didn’t know if the bloody nose effect would work.
- Gender-consistent choice would have been for man to be skeptic, woman to be intuitive, M&S made the pilot distinctive.
- TXF’s serialized quality was a precursor to today’s shows. The first movie resulted in season 8’s serialized approach, the show took a “right turn”. [Linking FTF to s8 is an odd connection, given how much later s8 happened and the circumstances around DD’s partial presence. Note the use of “right turn”, the same expression CC used for describing the revival mythology compared to what came before, for him it looks like this can mean something new in style or in content.]
- Advice to aspiring show-runners: stick to your guns. So many people gave notes, and that impacted the quality and compromised the excellence of what CC set out to do. Of all the people who gave CC notes, now there are only two in business. [I love a show-runner with a vision. But doesn’t CC sound a bit vindictive here?]
- TXF/Picket Fences cross-over was cancelled by the network to avoid a cross-pollination of audience.
- Challenging times: shooting End Game, Paper Clip, FTF, that year of TXF s5 + FTF + MM s2 (and 20+ episode seasons) was the hardest year of his life. [I can believe that!]
- Again, he stresses that he didn’t do this show alone and that it was a team effort. Throughout, there are nods to Dan Sackheim, Bob Goodwin, David Nutter, Peter Wunstorf (MM pilot director of photography), Kim Manners, Rob Bowman, Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, the women who worked on the show. [I have criticized CC myself on certain storytelling choices, but I will never criticize how strong he was as an overall show-runner, pushing and motivating everyone around him.]
About the revival:
- My Struggle I & II appear to have pleased the “Q-Anon crowd”, and he doesn’t know what to think about that. [As Darin Morgan astutely commented in his episode, conspiracies no longer mean what they meant in the 1990s in general culture. Difficult to do TXF’s mythology today in the same way as back then.]
- While shooting was going on for My Struggle IV, he was still undecided about the ending. Gillian Anderson made some comments online about this being the end for her. So he had to make some dramatic choices for the ending. [Again, this doesn’t align that well with the chronology of events, unless Carter didn’t believe Anderson meant it until the 11th hour.]
About #Millennium:
- David Fincher sought Carter out, they had lunch and discussed the project of doing the greatest serial killer series, which turned out to be #mindhunter, which Carter finds excellent [it is!], CC feels Millennium was an inspiration.
- The Millennium pilot was the result of TXF: “Irresistible”, there was an appetite for telling stories about things that were not supernatural.
- CC feels sorry that MM went off the air, he inadvertently pulled the plug on it, whereas Fox would have gone forward with a 4th season and maybe more. Given that CC was going to launch Harsh Realm, he wouldn’t have had time to spend on MM, and that was a premature decision. CC advised Jon Bokenkamp, the creator of #TheBlacklist, on its pilot an on how to spend your energy; years later, Bokenkamp was hesitating to pull the plug on the series and CC told him it would be a mistake: you never know where your next hit will be, you’d better stay with the winner until the bitter end. [This is an interesting confession from CC. The mind races with what could have been: MM seasons 4 and 5? On the other hand, this approach of sticking with what works no matter what is a two-edged swords, it explains CC’s unwillingness to ever, ever end TXF despite the writing being on the wall.]
- More MM/TXF crossovers would have happened if MM had continued. [And I would hope better too!]
- Recently, he saw Ryan Murphy’s Jeffrey #dahmer series and liked it, and this inspired him to talk to “somebody” about a MM reboot. [I am both excited and afraid. Amazing how the greenlight for many projects seems to be dependent on the mood of TV executives and what’s trendy these days.]
About the legacy of the show:
- The TXF novel that is currently being worked on follows on chronologically from the events of My Struggle IV. [All previous tie-in novels have essentially been stand-alone investigations and I can’t imagine a novel continuing the story in a substantial way, it will feel weird if it does. Until it’s retconned by something else in the future, like with the comics?]
- He thinks that Joe Harris did an excellent job with the comics, but doesn’t remember much about the MM comics. [Nice! But again, too bad that the revival de-canonized them and that the revival forced Harris’ Season 11 being cut short from the initial plans.]
- If anybody watches 30 years from now, it will be because of Mulder and Scully and their relationship.
- There are no plans for the show’s 30th anniversary this year. [So nothing from Fox/Disney, only fan-organized events.]
https://pod.link/1157097612/episode/534ef2668ededfe3790cfc22a5ef805d
Mar
31
2023
Social media archive: 2023 (part 2)
Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.
Mar 06, 2023 17:00
A rare interview with the recently deceased Jeff Vlaming, who wrote on #TheXFiles season 3, from 2021. The whole thing is great if you’re interested in TV writers’ careers, and he is very passionate! But if you want the TXF highlights you definitely have to watch from minute 22 to see how he got hired, with a handcrafted alien in a test tube that got Carter’s attention! (he even shows his own sketches of this on camera!) Also, these interesting and revealing bits (around 31′ and 39′):
On the way scripts were written:
There was no writers’ room in X-Files. We had our own respective offices. What you do is you come up with your idea on a bulletin board with cards, and then when you wanted to pitch it you pitch to Chris exclusively, Chris Carter would be your audience. Unfortunately Chris’s office was about a block from the writers’ offices we were in, so you’d carry bulletin boards with cards tacked on with tacks and you’re hoping against hope that it wasn’t raining or windy because you had to go a block outside to set up in Chris’s office and pitch to him. The writers all were accessible to each other and so you’d run ideas past them, individually or as a group, but there was no room. Chris was sort of the the hearing and all opinion on this, and so he’d give you notes and stuff like that, which was good. I think that helped to sort of stick with his sort of vision of the series that i think made it succeed so well.” [No writers’ room confirmed! This helped individual voices, and it all went through Carter for that extra layer of rewriting to give the whole thing coherence. Carter ran a tight ship.]
On why he had to leave after one year on staff:
“I sort of had to make a choice because this group was very much, you know, would work late into the night, would have some scotch, maybe smoke some cigars and it’s just like — first I didn’t drink scotch and I didn’t smoke cigars — but yeah I’m happy to be part of the team and wanted to be part of the team, but I was a brand new dad and that was the most important thing right then.” [Sounds like an exclusive gentlemens’ club! Doesn’t sound like a place for people with families or for women. I wonder what Kim Newton has to say about that.]
From @[100063644167284:2048:TV Writer Podcast]: https://tvwriterpodcast.podbean.com/e/118-jeff-vlaming/
Also on YouTube:
Mar 07, 2023 10:33
Let the #TheXFiles 30th anniversary festivities begin! Pilot, March 7, Mulder & Scully enter the town of Bellefleur, Oregon. (Apologies for the BluRay font that messed up the original.) But wait, is it 1993 or 1992?
Mar 08, 2023 16:00
One of the rare interviews with the extraordinary director Rob Bowman. I love listening to this man! There’s a guy who helped shape #TheXFiles look and feel, beginning from GenderBender in season 1 and into him directing the “Fight the Future” film and all the way to season 7. He was all about the work, the definition of bringing the quality of cinema to television. He describes here how he was bored with making interviews back then because they took time away from shooting, so it’s great to have him ramble on on this today. I especially liked hearing him talk about how Chris Carter or Frank Spotnitz would hint to him that it’s OK to go over budget on specific episodes because the quality of the result would sell itself. And about “Memento Mori”, how he initially thought the script was going to be too much soap opera with tears and violins, but it worked out great. He is even keen to do more TXF if the opportunity arises (and he even teases that there’s one issue preventing Chris Carter from doing more, I suppose he means Gillian Anderson’s reluctance but it could be something else).
Mar 12, 2023 20:00
Waiting to hear more about how advanced Carter and Fox/Disney are in the talks about a #TheXFiles reboot. Carter mentioned the possibility before in 2022, but in a manner that meant that he was not taking the idea seriously. This just in from science advisor Anne Simon:
“Chris Carter just said on a Q &A at the London Science Museum screening of episode 1 that Fox has contacted him about a reboot of the #TheXFiles with a diverse cast! I’d be so happy if this happens!”
https://www.twitter.com/Annealiz1/status/1634941007472238594
H/T Adam Silva for spotting this.
Edit: more context from other sources in social media who were there at the event (which I hope was recorded and we will see it eventually!):
“He said he’s willing to do one, and he’s been in preliminary talks with fox. He also said he had more stories to tell about the mythology and Scully’s pregnancy” [again the pregnancy? I’m out!]
“he reiterated that he personally couldn’t see a future of The X-Files without Mulder and Scully, but said that Disney/Fox had their own plans for that future. He said Fox had been on the phone to talk about a reboot with a “more diverse” cast. Essentially he was implying that a series without Mulder & Scully is in the works, but “in the works” could mean anything” [so this is coherent with what Carter said in 2022: he hopes that if more TXF happens it will be with M&S, but Fox/Disney have other plans because GA is reluctant and to bring TXF to a younger generation. Not clear to what extent Carter, most likely co-owner of the TXF IP, can completely veto Fox/Disney decisions.]
Mar 16, 2023 9:54
[FRENCH] #TheXFiles La saison 5! La première saison qui a commencé à décevoir une partie considérable des fans de la première heure. Vu la qualité de la photographie et la qualité de nombreux scripts, comment est-ce possible direz-vous ? Et pourtant, il y a beaucoup à dire, la preuve ce podcast dure presque 4 heures et je vais mettre un moment pour l’écouter en entier !…
https://podcast.ausha.co/le-coin-pop/the-x-files-saison-5-resister-ou-servir
Mar 28, 2023 19:55
Things get more specific! Chris Carter talks about shooting #TheXFiles in Vancouver (some nice trivia here!) and repeats that there are attempts to do a new reimagined version of the show:
“I just spoke to a young man, Ryan Coogler, who is going to remount The X-Files with a diverse cast. So he’s got his work cut out for him, because we covered so much territory.”
Ryan Coogler, born 1986 (!), wrote and directed the first Creed and the two Black Panther films.
I’m quite phlegmatic about this. The way the modern entertainment industry centers around ‘content’ and ‘brands’, this was going to happen sooner or later. I will follow what happens, but don’t think I will be the target audience for this — not at all because of the ‘diverse’ part but because I don’t see much creativity and risk-taking in *most* modern genre TV — plus I will have no emotional attachment to a product that doesn’t feature the Carter/Duchovny/Anderson combination. Who knows? Let’s say it’s an uphill battle.
Plus, more from that interview:
Carter’s first visit in Vancouver was in 1986, when his wife was shooting something in the forests there, those forests that would be so much useful to the show.
Lots of love for Vancouver, its people, the crew there, the mood because of the weather: “I owe it all to Vancouver”.
Mar 29, 2023 00:25
#TheXFiles animated project “Albuquerque”, rumored in 2020, is no more. (After having seen some of the similarly-sounding Star Trek: Lower Decks, maybe that’s not a bad idea.)
But also this bit, in relation with today’s other news about Ryan Coogler developing a revamped TXF: “TVLine has learned, however, that Coogler’s X-Files would not be for Fox.” I’m not sure what this means. Disney owns Fox, TXF is (most likely) co-owned by Fox and Ten Thirteen. So, does this mean that this new project is for Disney+ directly, or something to that effect?
https://tvline.com/2023/03/28/the-x-files-albuquerque-cancelled-fox-animated-series-spinoff/
*Edit: this from Variety clarifies that, under Diney restructuring, Fox and 20th TV are no longer the same company, which explains the above, and that Coogler has a contract with Disney TV to develop new projects, so this is one of them: “As the project is in its very early stages, there is no word on what network or platform on which it would air. More than likely, though, it would air on Hulu rather than “The X-Files’” original network home, Fox, as Fox and 20th TV are no longer part of the same company following Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox. To that point, there are currently revivals of the Fox shows “Futurama” and “King of the Hill” set up at Hulu. Coogler would be developing the project under his five-year overall deal with Walt Disney Television, of with 20th TV is a part.”
https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/ryan-coogler-x-files-reboot-1235567129/
Mar 29, 2023 17:00
#TheXFiles 30th anniversary interviews continue at CBC with two Vancouver locals reminiscing about the past:
Nicholas Lea (Alex Krycek): “The number one reason is not necessarily the subject matter, but really the talent of the people behind the show: the line producers, the people who found the locations…”
William B. Davis (Cigarette-Smoking Man): “There was a commitment you saw on that set from everybody to do their very best work: whether it was the focus puller, or whether it was Chris Carter or it was the actors…”
(And both would be in for appearing in the “remount” of the show which is being worked on.)
Mar 31, 2023 20:31
#TheXFiles 30th anniversary interviews continue at CBC with Vancouver producer J.P. Finn, a key person for all first five years of the show. He shares some stories of how Vancouver was transformed by shooting TXF there. In a nice story of circularity, he remembers shooting among the first episodes in the same place where later a stadium was built, where they shot the last episode of the series for the Vancouver era: he must be referring to the Plaza of Nations (Squeeze, Little Green Men) which is right next to the Rogers Arena (The End), built in 1995.