Get ready, X-Files fans. Series creator Chris Carter and original stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson have heard your prayers for more tales of agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, and they're about to answer them! The three genre legends appeared at Wondercon earlier today, and offered FEARnet, and the con's other attendees, the first glimpse of footage shown anywhere of the second X-Files film, due out in theaters this July.
The footage was brief, running just two or three minutes, and was crudely edited (though Carter, later backstage, referring to it as a trailer, explained that even he had not seen this footage before, and that it was cut together just a couple of days prior). But it was the first look anyone's had of America's favorite FBI agents in six years, since the finale of their series aired, and it had a gritty, moody, suitably X-Files feel to it. What scenes were shown in the new footage included the film's co-star Billy Connolly walking with a row of FBI agents, led by a now long-haired Scully, across a frozen lake, searching for...something. This footage was intercut with various scenes of Mulder running and...getting smashed in a car accident! (Don't worry, folks--we're guessing he recovered soon.) The last scene screened showed Connolly's character discovering, trapped beneath the ice, a dead body, and hysterically shouting, It's here! It's here!
It certainly is here. But there's apparently quite a bit of labor going into it. Duchovny, Anderson and Carter were visibly exhausted as they answered questions from the Wondercon crowd in Hall A of the Moscone Convention Center. They'd been filming the night before in Vancouver, straight up until 6 am, after which they hopped on a plane to San Francisco to attend the convention.
One of the first questions asked of Carter, who's directing the X-Files sequel, was Why will this film be worth the wait? After reflecting on this for several moments, Carter replied, Because it'll scare the pants off you. And you'll get to see Mulder and Scully again in a whole new way.
Are there any more X-Files films Carter will work on after this one? Right away, he said with a tired smile.
And how did Anderson and Duchovny take to returning once more to the roles that made them superstars? I sucked, said Anderson of her first two days of shooting. I sucked for forty-eight hours. She went on to explain that for years she'd been battling the urge to act like Scully in her other roles, and now found herself in the awkward postition of fighting to embrace that very same urge.
Duchovny too was surprised by how difficult it was too play a role he'd defined for almost a decade, though he said his first days of working on the sequel consisted of little more than him running. I thought this was gonna be easy, he laughed. He went on to describe the slightly older Mulder and Scully that we'll see in the film. We want to honor the changes as well as keep them the same people, he said.
Carter, Duchovny and Anderson, were joined by Frank Spotnitz, who'd written numerous fondly remembered episodes of the series, and is returning to script the sequel film. I was surprised by how quickly I reconnected, said Spotnitz. Mulder and Scully lived in my imagination for so long, and after an absence of six years--there they were.
Carter shared Spotnitz's feelings. It was like no time had passed, he said, Typing the words 'Mulder and Scully' is the most natural keyboard stroke.
Carter also confirmed that X-Files series composer Mark Snow is returning to score the film, and that Amanda Peet will play Mulder and Scully's fellow FBI agent.
After their presentation, we were fortunate enough to chat with Carter, Duchovny, Anderson and Spotnitz in exclusive one-on-one video interviews (the highlight of which was beholding our college crush Anderson looking every bit as radiant as she did during the X-Files original run; her hair dyed once more Scully's spaghetti red). Keep checking back with FEARnet--we'll have these interviews up soon. Remember, X-Files fans, the truth is in here !