Since the last update in May, here is another update on the new The X-Files project, aka “the reboot” for lack of a better name or descriptor, handled by Ryan Coogler.
The IMDb page is up.
Shooting the pilot
Shooting was scheduled from 11 May to 11 June.
Director of Photography Autumn Durald Arkapaw posted another series of photos from her time shooting the pilot in Vancouver (plus one of Coogler for his birthday): again, hard to tell anything on the end product from this, other than it looks like they will be making use of the Vancouver forests (as pictured in this article), which is excellent news.
Some Vancouverites reported that shooting was taking place at the Pendrell Suites at 1419 Pendrell St, which is what had been used for the exterior shots of Scully’s apartment (and gave the name to the character of Agent Pendrell).
The choice of shooting there could be significant: will there be a flashback where Scully makes an appearance? will the investigation involve a past case of Mulder and Scully’s and the new agents look for clues at Scully’s past apartment? On the other hand, it could just be a case of making use of an interesting building and frequent shooting location, unrelated to its past connection to the show.
This Twitter/X account has a behind the scenes photo of Patel and Deadwyler. No source is provided, so treat this with a grain of salt — because nothing else from the production has filtered to the public! If you know the actual source, or know that this is fake, please reach out!
That same account posted a shooting notice and a photo of the shooting for Pendrell Street, although with no source provided it’s hard to be sure this is legitimate.
Stage 49 Ltd is indeed a Vancouver-based production company.
The photo is taken from Broughton Street looking into Pendrell Street, so the location fits.
Canadagraphs, who had spotted shooting of the season 10 revival, also spotted shooting of the pilot, in this short video: shooting in a manor-like house, covered in sheeting (to make it look like nighttime?). This is not the Pendrell Suites.
Interviews
The Direct
Himesh Patel: “I don’t want to say anything that’s going to get me disappeared. Needless to say, myself and Danielle Deadwyler are playing completely new characters, and we just wrapped on the pilot. If we get to do more… we’ll see where we go from there.”
Collider
Himesh Patel: “I really can’t tell you much with regards to anything other than it’s just a pilot, for now. We shot a pilot, we’ll see what happens, but I had a great time, and everyone was great to work with, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed.”
Virgin Radio UK
Himesh Patel: “It’s Ryan Coogler who’s rebooting it. He’s an amazing filmmaker. And so again, just so glad to have even been asked. We had a lovely chat about it. I was at home. I got an email. And then I had breakfast with Ryan when he was in town for the BAFTAs and we had a chat about his sort of ideas for it beyond the script that I’d read and the character that we’re trying to build. It was a weird one because I was like, am I auditioning for you or are you trying to pitch this to me? Because obviously for me the answer is yes! And then we went on that journey and I just wrapped on it. It’s just a pilot for now. Hopefully people get to see it eventually. There’s two of us who will be the sort of centerpiece of the show, myself and an actress called Daniel Deadwyler who I worked with before. Completely new characters.”
Happy Sad Confused (at 44min)
Himesh Patel: “We shot the pilot. It was very, very special. We await a decision, of course. All I can tell you is I had an incredible time. It was [meaningful for me] maybe not as meaningful as for people who really dived into it or lived it at the time. I was maybe 3 or so when it first started, a little young to be watching it. You really come to understand the responsibility of it, the power of it, as a world.” “Ryan and his whole team and myself and Danielle were very aligned in that way that we love depth, we love everything to have a meaningful context. Ryan believes that the audience is intelligent and he wants to give them as much richness and tapestry as he can. Hopefully, people will see it.”
The Daily Beast
Danielle Deadwyler: “allow the change to happen”, “remain open-minded”
The pilot as a movie?
Barely a week after shooting concluded, Coogler and his production company announced a partnership with Netflix, moving away from working with Disney (THR article): “Proximity Media Television signed a multi-year deal to develop series exclusively for Netflix. Proximity’s prior overall TV deal at Disney expired earlier this year.”
Now, it was always the plan that Coogler would develop the concept and direct the pilot only, leaving the showrunning to another person, Jennifer Yale, so Coogler was never meant to be involved full time with a running series. It’s unclear how far ahead Coogler and Yale have planned stories, story arcs and character arcs, but Coogler did talk about multiple scripts in the past. It’s also unclear whether this new deal means that he cannot be involved at all with Disney+ productions.
In this context came the news from World of Reel that the pilot is a full two hours length, that it was shot in 65mm, and that Coogler is asking Disney to consider releasing it as a feature film!
Filming a TV production on film instead of digital is by now extremely rare, even more so on 65mm which is more of a feature film format (the original TXF series was shot on 35mm). Coogler and Arkapaw shot “Sinners” in 65mm as well. It looks like they have given this project the same care as for their larger projects and they want the prestige that goes with it.
We can only speculate what this means for the TV series beyond the pilot. Is Disney not as keen any more and Coogler is pushing for his work on the pilot at least to be seen by the public? Is Disney very keen and confident and want to use this as a way to promote the future series? Is the pilot’s story sufficiently self-contained for an independent release?
As Patel reminded us several times, only a pilot has been shot and a series is not a done deal. Coogler and Arkapaw are Academy Award-winning “hot” names right now, and Patel’s star is rising, as he was in Christopher Nolan’s “Odyssey”, one of the highest-grossing films of the year. An X-Files series involving these people will not be a little underground series that will find its audience but a costly prestige release that will have a big marketing push.
An unexpected third X-Files movie would be cool for sure! To be continued…