By now you know the truth because it's out there: Mulder and Scully are back.

The long-awaited film sequel based on the beloved cult TV series will begin production this December in Vancouver, according to Twentieth Century Fox, with a release date set for July 25, 2008. (An official title is still being hammered out.)

Creator Chris Carter says that the movie will focus on a stand-alone mystery rather than exploring the show's dense mythology. Beyond that, he's not spilling details, only saying, "It will be scary."

So what finally got the long-gestating project off the ground? According to Carter, who will direct the movie and co-write the script with X-Files exec producer Frank Spotnitz, years of contract disputes with Fox were resolved when the threat of an impending writers' strike came to a head. "If we don't do it now and the strike was protracted, it would force the movie to come out several years from now," he says. "And that was too late. It was either now or never."

We like that answer too.