Few Familiar Faces In X-Files 2
The X-Files creator Chris Carter, who directed the upcoming sequel film subtitled I Want to Believe, told reporters that he wanted the film to be stripped down to its essence–the relationship between Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson)–and that he therefore had to pare away any of the TV series’ mythology, which fans may be clamoring for.
“We wanted to make this as pure a movie as we could, you know, about Mulder and Scully, how [they] are the essence of The X-Files,” Carter said in a news conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., over the weekend. “And I spoke earlier about how struck we were by their relationship and their emotional story, returning to the show after such a long absence.”
And that means fans shouldn’t expect to see a lot of their favorite characters from the show to appear or to get any answers to any of the show’s lingering mysteries. “The more characters you bring in from the past, the more explaining you have to do,” Carter said. “And the more it gets wrapped up in the mythology of the show. And so in this movie we wanted to keep it as simple as we could, and there are many, many more characters that we talked about [that] we would have loved to have brought back in this movie, but ultimately, as you know, there was only room for one, and it’s not a sign of a lack of affection or enthusiasm for the others.”
The film picks up Mulder and Scully six years after the events of the Fox TV show’s finale. The two former FBI agents find themselves caught up in a mystery involving the disappearance of another agent. The movie introduces several new characters–played by Billy Connolly, Amanda Peet and Xzibit–but almost none of the series’ regulars.
Carter even avoided showing the film to test audiences. “We only showed it to family and friends,” he said. “We did not do any market testing. Fox was adamant, as were we, about keeping the movie a secret. Also, I think you can really drive yourself crazy by showing it to a select group of diehard fans. … If you show it to 30, you’ll get 30 different impressions of what you didn’t do or what you did do or what you should do more of. So we really went with our gut.”
Carter added: “This is the way we always have worked on the show. Are there questions unanswered? There are so many questions, you couldn’t answer them all. It probably would have been a different kind of movie if you did try to answer them all. Certainly, if we’re successful here, I’m sure Fox … will want to talk to us about another movie. But we did this movie as if it might be the last time we’ll see Mulder and Scully, because we just don’t know.” The X-Files: I Want to Believe opens July 25. -
Two new SPOILER Clips from the new movie:
Gruesome Discovery
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