New (Cult)u're Magazine X-Files Article

The new issue of (Cult)u're Magazine is out. Check it out here: http://www.culturemagazine.ca/

This issue's theme is "Circles", and the cinema section includes an article of mine called "The X-Files 2: All Things Come Full Circle".

This is a taste of what the article has to offer:

The X-Files continued to draw viewers as Seasons Two and Three progressed, and managed to tap into the cultural zeitgeist in a significant way, positioning itself at the center of a cultural, artistic, political and intellectual nexus. A growing interest in feminism and mid-90s ‘girl power,’ the rise of the ‘metrosexual’ male, a renewed fascination in the possibility of extraterrestrial life, the spread of new age spiritualism, a growing cynicism towards government representatives, the popular birth of cell phones and internet communication technology, along with the massive spread of on-line culture, all influenced and were likewise influenced by the series.

You can read the full article here: http://www.culturemagazine.ca/content/view/147/54/

If you like what you see, be sure to subscribe to the magazine!

How to Solve "The Truth" Status Quo Problems

Okay, X-Files News Dot Com has the latest batch of set photos and, in the pictures, Mulder has a beard. Why does Mulder have a beard? Well, let's ruminate, shall we?

I've been thinking a lot about the strange situation "The Truth" left Mulder and Scully in and how it will be reflected in the movie. Chris Carter is faced with three major status quo problems going into this movie:

1) Mulder and Scully are a couple.
2) Mulder and Scully have a child.
3) Mulder and Scully are on the run from the government.

All these of these situations will need to be fixed. Carter isn't going to want ANY of those plot points to exist in the movie. He going to want a non-romantically linked Mulder and Scully working for the government investigating cases, without having to mention the babysitter watching little William back home.

So this is what I think is going to have happened between "The Truth" and "Done One".
Baby William will have died, perhaps because of the difficulties of life underground and on the run. The death of their child is too much for the couple, and Mulder and Scully break-up. (There's two of the three problems fixed right there.)

Following the break-up, Scully returns to the mainstream government work, only to discover that there has been a change in regimes and she and Mulder are no longer wanted criminals. Scully spends years working as part of the system, while Mulder refuses to trust the system and remains underground.

They don't speak for years. Scully works to make a name for herself and a respectable sicentist and distances herself from her past on the X-Files.

Then, Scully gets involved in a case that can only be described as 'paranormal'. She's in over her head and needs help. She is forced to seek out her old lover, her old partner, her old friend Fox Mulder.

Mulder's been living as a bearded, crazy underground paranormal researcher, but without the resources of the FBI too aid him and without the scientific knowledge of his old partner, he hasn't accomplished much.

Scully finds him and convinces him to return to the fold. He shaves his beard, puts on the old suit and they head out to investigate this X-File together for the first time in five years.

All of our problems are solved. We have a non-romantically linked and babyless non-wanted Mulder and Scully working for the government and investigating the paranormal together, without all of the baggage of the last two seasons.

I'd been thinking about this for a while and seeing Mulder in that beard only convinced me further that this is the approach they are going to take.

First Mulder and Scully Pictures

Holy Shit!

We all saw those behind the scenes shots of Duchovny from the first few days of shooting last month, but here it is: our first pictures of Special Agent Fox Mulder and Special Agent Dana Scully together again!

I guess any hair questions are now put to rest. We have a long haired Scully in The X-Files 2!

And doesn't Gillian look great?!

Wow... those pictures don't really look weird at all. It just looks like Mulder and Scully doing their thing. If I had to describe them in one word, I would say that the pictures look "right", which is a good sign.

When I first saw these pics, I had to do a double take to make sure they weren't just stills from some old episode. It would seem that, aestetically speaking, the look of the characters is right where the series left off!

In other news, X-Files Ultimate reported recently that the budget for the film is $30 million, which is rather small when you consider that films like Superman Returns and Spider-Man 3 are all breaking the $200 million budget mark these days.

But heh, The X-Files isn't Spider-Man. They don't need tonnes of special effects. The best special effect The X-Files ever used was the dynamic chemistry between its two leads. 1013 shot nine years of episodes on a television budget and did just fine, so hopefully a modest budget shouldn't be a hinderance.

Then again, if you think of Carter as a first time feature film director, $30 million aint bad! Hell, look what Joss Whedon (another first time feature film director) did with Serenity's $39 million budget!

Then again, when it comes to directing, Carter aint no Whedon...

X-Files 2 Set Visit Auction Update

Seven hours into the auction.

Latest bid: $10,800.

Seriously.

Money, Happiness, and the X-Files 2 Set Visit Auction

Does money buy happiness? I (like most poor people) would tend to argue in the affirmative. Here's an example: over at GAWS, it has been announced that they are going to auction off two passes to spend a day on the set of the X-Files 2, watching shooting take place and meeting the cast and crew.

It is times like this that I really, really wish I wasn't in poverty. I mean sure, I want a nice house and a cool car. I'd like to be able to know for sure that I am going to have enough money for food and rent at the end of the month. I'd like to have my student loans and credit card debt paid off. Those creature comforts would all be wonderful, but what I would really like is the ability to drop a few thousands dollars, or whatever it is going to cost, to win this auction and get onto the set of the X-Files 2.

I couldn't even imagine what that experience would be like... to finally get to meet people like Chris Carter and Gillian Anderson, people who have brought such joy and pleasure to my life. These people affected my personal development on a deep level. They played a huge part in my becoming the person I am today and an even bigger part in the person I was throughout high school. They have had a monumental influence on my life, and I have had no influence what-so-ever on theirs. The opportunity to say, "Thanks," would be amazing.

And that, my friends, is how money can buy happiness. Money affords you the ability to walk onto the set of the new X-Files movie, shake hands with Chris Carter, look him in the eyes and say, "Thank you. Your art made my life better." These are the moments that poverty steals away from you. It's not just that you can't have nice things, it's that you can't do the things you want to do, the things that would bring you real joy and create memories that would last you a life time.

I had the opportunity to meet Chris Owens, the actor who played Jeffery Spender, at a comic book convention in Toronto a few years ago. And William B David, the cigarrette smoking man himself, was kind enough to send me an email a few months back. In that sense, I'm lucky. I have interacted with some of the people who brought The X-Files to life.

In fact, I'm very lucky. When I say "poverty" I mean only that I have to worry about how I'm going to pay my rent sometimes, and that it will be a few decades before my wife and I pay off our student loans. I don't mean that I am on the streets, starving and alone, like hundreds of thousands of Canadians out there. I've rarely gone hungry in my life and I have a shelf that holds nine seasons worth of X-Files DVDs, most of which sold for more than $100 each back in the day.

But that only serves to prove my point. One of the reasons I was able to experience the bliss of watching The X-Files was the fact that I had the money to afford cable television, a DVD player and the box sets of the seasons. The X-Files brought me bountiful joy, but only because I had the money to purchase access to that joy.

My wife and I currently pay $700 a month in student loans. Lets say the set passes end up selling for $5000, and lets say that I won. That would mean it would take me an extra seven months to pay off our student loan debt. Throw on the interest and it would probably be more like eight or nine months. Plus, we'd have to add the cost of plane tickets to Vancouver, lodging once we are there, and transportation to the set. That's probably a couple more months worth of money there.

So, in the end of the day, I have to ask myself, is one day on the set of The X-Files 2 worth one year of my life? Sadly, the answer is, "probably not."

I really hope that whoever wins the auction appreciates how truly lucky they are.

First Set Photos Arrive

We truly live in a glorious age. A mere three days into shooting, and already we have our first set of behind the scenes photos! Check them out over at X-Files Ultimate, where they also have an awesome X-Files 2 countdown clock. Shots include Duchovny, as well as Peet and Xzibit. Plus there is the great shot, to the right, of Carter directing Duchovny.

I guess we will have to wait a little longer to find out what Scully's hair is going to look like, but Duchovny's hair and clothing in these photos certainly look appropriately Mulder-esk.

The First Day of Shooting

Here it is, the day we have all been waiting for! As I type this, the first scenes from the new X-Files film are being shot in Vancouver, B.C.

On this very special and exciting day I want to send out all my best wishes and good vibes to Gillian, David and Chris.

Here's hoping you folks knock this one out of the park!