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The X-Files Revival 2016

Introduction: Revival
10X1: My Struggle
(Chris Carter)
10X2: Founder’s Mutation (James Wong)
10X3: Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster (Darin Morgan)
10X4: Home Again (Glen Morgan)
10X5: Babylon (Chris Carter)
10X6: My Struggle II (Chris Carter & Anne Simon & Margaret Fearon)

The X-Files Revival 2018

Introduction: From Season 10 to Season 11
11X01: My Struggle III
 (Chris Carter)
11X02: This (Glen Morgan)
11X03: Plus One (Chris Carter/Kevin Hooks)
11X04: The Lost Art of Forehead Sweat (Darin Morgan)
11X05: Ghouli (James Wong)
11X06: Kitten (Gabe Rotter/Carol Banker)
11X07: Rm9sbG93ZXJz  (Kristen Cloke & Shannon Hamblin/Glen Morgan)
11X08: Nothing Lasts Forever (Karen Nielsen/James Wong)
11X09: Familiar (Benjamin Van Allen/Holly Dale)
11X10: My Struggle IV (Chris Carter)

IDW Comics checklist

Season 10 (June 2013-July 2015) – full issues list
#1-5: Believers | 1 2 3 4 5
#6-7: Hosts | 6 7
#8: Being for the Benefit of Mr. X | 8
#9: Chitter | 9
#10: More Musings of the Cigarette-Smoking Man | 10
#11-15: Pilgrims | 11 12 13 14 15
#16-17: Immaculate | 16 & 17
#18: Monica & John | 18
#19-20: G-23 | 19 & 20
#21-25: Elders | 21 & 22 23 & 24 25

Season 11 (August 2015-March 2016) – full issues list
#1: Cantus | 1
#2-4: Home Again | 2-3-4
#5: My Name Is Gibson | 5
S11 X-Mas Special | X-Mas 2015
#6-8: Endgames | 6-7-8

The X-Files (April 2016-August 2017)
#1: Active Shooter
#2-3: Días de los Muertos
#4-5: Ishmael
#6-9: Came Back Haunted
#10-11: Contrarians
#12-13: Skinner
#14-17: Resistance

Conspiracy: 6 issues. The Lone Gunmen cross-over with Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ghostbusters, The Crow

Annuals: April 2014 (2 stories) | July 2015 | July 2016

Year Zero: 5 issues, July-November 2014. Present-day X-Files and flashback to 1940s.

Christmas Special: Season 10: December 2014 (features both present-day and 1940s agents from Year Zero) | Season 11: December 2015 (features the Lone Gunmen) | December 2016 (A Christmas Carol for Mulder)

MillenniuM: 5 issues, January-May 2015 | 1 2 3 4 5

Origins: 8 issues, 2016-2017

Deviations: 2 issues, 2016-2017

JFK Disclosure: 2 issues, October-November 2017

Case Files: 25th anniversary celebration. 4 issues, April-July 2018

Beyond

Perihelion: review/analysis

Perihelion‘, by Claudia Gray, Hyperion Avenue (an imprint of Disney Publishing), 2024

<rant>
Before I say anything about this novel, and this is completely independent of the novel’s qualities, I must add a disclaimer. I am much less emotionally involved with TXF than I was in the past and my level of excitement for anything new has dropped accordingly, however I will try to address what the novel attempts to achieve as objectively as I can. I’m considering anything past season 7 as bonus material anyway; and if s8 was like the “Extended Edition” and s9 was like cut scenes and IWTB was DVD extras, then s10-11 were like the making of of the making of in terms of importance. I enjoy new things and past passion still drives me, but it’s not what it used to be. Let’s just say that I’m more interested in things that have something to say and then end, and leave it at that. And now that I’ve done spilling my negativity, let’s move on to the novel.
</rant>

There will be spoilers.

“If the last thirty years of my work have taught me anything, it’s that evidence…evidence is irrelevant.”

This novel is different from all the preceding TXF novels in that it’s the first one that takes place specifically in-continuity and continues the storyline. All the previous novels (the 1990s novels, the short story anthologies) were stand-alone investigations taking place during the show’s run, or at least had no ambition to build their own mythology. Claudia Gray attempts what Joe Harris did with his Season 10 comics in 2013 — which were also blessed by Chris Carter with the holy status of being “canon” (literally canonized), until that was rescinded when the live revival happened.

For certain, the novel takes place in our times. There are discussions of plenty of start-ups, there’s a non-binary nurse, there are several jabs at the era of disinformation and of Trumpian post-truth. It’s been a record six years since Scully announced she was pregnant; with references here from 2018 (‘Where the Crawdads Sing’) to 2022 (‘Star Trek: Strange New Worlds’) it’s hard to tell when the story exactly takes place, which is a bit frustrating. The timing of the revival itself was very problematic as it seemed to be taking place when the episodes aired, internal timing be damned.

Claudia Gray, an ex-TXF-fanfic writer and better known for her Young Adult novels, knows her stuff! There are a *lot* of references to past episodes and cases. Reading her Acknowledgments, you can tell she is clearly a fan, and one can only be happy for her. Actually, there are so many references to the series and the plot is so closely tied to the revival that one couldn’t recommend this novel to a casual fan: this is for the hardcore audience who still want more (and I suppose that sales figures will reflect that).

There are a couple of nice jokes at the show’s expense (and at Carter?). Mulder muses that “we’re overdue for an update” on their FBI badge photos, it must refer to the opening titles remaining the same even in the revival. Scully’s thoughts that Doggett was OK but that the X-Files was really Mulder and Scully was something we heard from many producers for the show’s thirtieth anniversary. (Oddly enough, absolutely no mention of Reyes: is she kept for a future appearance, with a shock survival?)

“Just because I can endure trauma doesn’t mean I should.”

The novel has to deal with plenty of the baggage left over from the last finale (11X10: ‘My Struggle IV’) and that’s no trivial matter. It’s not the novel’s fault that much of the situation and focus was preposterous — an a priori baseless rejection of William as not their child, a second pregnancy shocker that repeats earlier situations but at a much more advanced age, a tabula rasa of the mythology with plenty of characters ending up dead (?). Instead of side-stepping things, the novel chooses to deal with all of it head-on, and hats off for even attempting that! In parts, this novel feels like proper closure from the frantic ‘My Struggles’ events, if Carter and the show had dedicated the proper time to the characters’ emotional lives instead of car chases. The novel stands as an epilogue to the revival series, leaving the lead characters to a much better emotional place than in the start (the titular perihelion, like day follows night). Things could even end there, as far as Mulder and Scully’s journey are concerned. But that’s not the only thing the novel is doing, and we’ll come back to that.

“I resent that so much of my life journey–even as an FBI agent–is tied to my maternity. It is not the whole of my self, not the sole governor of my fate.”

Much of ‘Perielion’ is Mulder and Scully’s internal thoughts, about themselves, their relationship, their complicated lives, their many traumas. As a plot-driven show, this was rare in the series, and we only got glimpses of this in monologues that became a staple of the show (‘Memento Mori’, ‘Redux’). The open discussion of their relationship is something that was atypical of the series until ‘I Want To Believe’. This being a gap to fill, it was also the typical focus of much fanfic, and this novel does feel like it at times — and this is meant in a good way. The prose is competent, the characters feel alive, the sections flow well from one to the other, the whole package is very professional and satisfying to read. Yes, the writer is a woman, and you can’t help but noting that given how much better everything around the issue of medical rape is treated here.

“William was an experiment. He was never Mulder’s. He was barely mine.”

The novel spends much of its page count showing Mulder and Scully dealing with the trauma and the consequences of the things that happened to them. ‘My Struggle IV’ was an extreme example of both emotional trauma and of absurdly little time dedicated to its aftermath. The novel’s role as the opportunity to debrief, open up, confront and move on is very, very much welcome (although a bit repetitive at times). The novel clarifies that Scully’s rejection of William as their son was a way for her to rationalize her shock at learning that he was the product of the Cigarette-Smoking Man’s experiments. The novel’s denouement nicely brings about Scully having to confront her anger at this situation, enabling her to start thinking about William again in a saner way.

The novel does comment on the absurdity of Mulder and Scully being flatmates intending to co-parent at age above 50. This is in continuity with IWTB and the revival, which had them becoming more distant because of Mulder’s depression from being away from his life’s goal, the X-Files. There’s something very sad about these two people at this stage of their life, with so much common past and common loss, still struggling to find a balance with each other so that they can be young parents as if they were twenty years younger. But this is where the story has brought these characters, and, again, ‘Perihelion’ has to deal with the status at the end of s11.

“William, her son, the one she had prayed for every night for so many years, the product of a vicious experiment by a vicious man, but still her son, the son she had lost for good, always and forever hers–“

‘Perihelion’ walks back on some big and controversial events of the ‘Struggle’ episodes. The CSM pretended William was his son, and this oral revelation was relayed from Skinner to Scully — all this was just hearsay, but the characters treated this as truth. Again through hearsay, Scully is told that the CSM was not William’s father but that he was “just” responsible for her being able to conceive. This mitigates somewhat how awful Scully feels about the whole affair. This medical operation on Scully looks like it happened during ‘En Ami’: she is found to have “new” DNA as young as a baby’s (long telomeres) and hence able to create new eggs (gametogenesis), which ties in with that episode’s tale of technology that cures all disease and makes an elderly woman live even longer. It also ties in with the joke turned fan theory turned near-canon of Scully being immortal.

That’s in-universe justification enough for how Scully could get pregnant at age 50something. It also sets up the same type of fears that the baby might have superpowers and be the subject of experiments as seasons 8 and 9, and I don’t know if I’m interested to go throught this again.

(For what it’s worth, William not being genetically the CSM’s son does contradict established canon, as William’s monologue and visions in ‘My Struggle IV’ clearly established that the CSM was his father, whatever Carter might say in interviews. And let’s not even mention how we should believe that Scully never did genetic tests on William during her pregnancy and after; while here Scully diligently does checks on her new embryo.)

To top it all off, we also get confirmation that the CSM is finally dead for good now (yet still able to influence things in this world even beyond the grave, in one of the novel’s most successful scenes, the channeling! I hope that was a one-off, though, let him rest) and Scully gets a hint that William is still alive (setting up a potential healing reunion later on).

“The truth is still out there, Scully, but now, so is everything else”

But showing us Mulder and Scully building a hopeful future for themselves, as if this were an epilogue, is not the only thing the novel does. It also restarts the concept of ‘The X-Files’ and essentially consists in the first of an open-ended series.

Any continuation of an established precedent has to play a balance game between reusing familiar elements and proposing something new. This novel is no exception: there’s plenty of TXF staples throughout. The thing is, over the past 10 years, between the IDW S10/11 comics continuation and then the revival, this is the third soft-reboot that we get and it’s unavoidable to feel the repetition.

Again, Mulder and Scully return to the FBI as agents after their suspension in ‘My Struggle IV’. That pause had lasted just a few weeks, but it feels as if they are returning after many years (which have actually passed in our world). They’ve been bought by Disney, and so the FBI can’t get rid of them! Again, they answer to an Assistant Director of ambiguous loyalties who is pressured by a mysterious figure — who thinks that whatever Fox Mulder (and *not* Dana Scully) does is very important. Again, like in IWTB, Scully is concerned that Mulder would be consumed by the work and only worries about him, again leaving a better job in medicine for the X-Files. Mulder gets a new informant and the Syndicate is replaced by another group, the Inheritors.

All of this is familiar ground. Maybe too much so. The novel both doesn’t shy away from the oddity of a 50+ year old pregnancy, but also doesn’t think twice of two 50+ year olds returning to FBI service as field agents, when normally at this age they wouldn’t be accepted. Independent private consultants would have been a much more realistic depiction; they could even be the ones training the actual FBI field agents. But it was more important not to change something as fundamental to the brand as ‘a couple of FBI investigators’. It’s 2024, but it will always be 1995.

“Chaos is coming, and the Inheritors have decided that if they can’t govern it, they can at least profit from it”

The neoSyndicate, the Inheritors, looks as if it’s operating out of the same office in that skyscraper in New York City. It is but one of the groups that fill the power gap left by the Syndicate (but those events were over 20 years ago!) and by the carnage of ‘My Struggle IV’. Previous incarnations gave the conspiracy a motivation that tried to feel more of its time: see for example in Harris’ comics the Glasses-Wearing Man’s obsession with news streams and manipulation of public agencies via subsidiaries of subsidiaries; or in the revival the digitalization of the X-Files archive and the prevalence of international private security firms). For the Inheritors, gone are the days of the grand Project and of great idealistic words like “Resist or Serve”: this new group just wants…money, more of it, and what creature comforts it can buy. There’s little allegory I can see in this novel, but if ‘Perihelion’ has anything to comment about our world, is that we really are in late-late capitalism.

“The entire world is about to be an X-File”

The novel slips into case file mode for a bit — there are some welcome chapters of actual investigation, profiling, paper trail, the bread and butter of early seasons that progressively disappeared in the later seasons. Sadly, it vanishes all too quickly when the case proves to be just a pretense for introducing Scully’s new superpowers.

‘Perihelion’ presents us with a fast-changing world. Like in the revival, the aliens are nowhere to be seen, but humans tamper with alien biology and technology. Alien DNA spread in the general population is resulting in people developing supernatural abilities, and forming a sort of community of X-Men. This comparison is inevitable — not only was this discussed during the revival, with the children in ‘Founder’s Mutation’ and William’s ghouli.net musings of joining a group of youngsters similar to him, but ‘Perihelion’ is actually explicit, comparing one of them to an X-Men mutant (Nightcrawler). This continues themes introduced way back in ‘The End’, with Gibson Praise developing paranormal abilities thanks to alien DNA, as this was possibly the explanation behind all the X-Files cases. It’s not clear at all when this new wave of mutations started, whether this was the Syndicate’s or the CSM’s initial goal, whether this is the result of ‘My Struggle II”s Spartan virus or of something else… At this point, the mytharc has become such a palimpsest that even canon works (and this reviewer) no longer try to join the dots.

There is zero mystery or subtlety here. Scully sees the mutants and their superpowers (teleportation, levitation). We are told exactly what the Inheritors want barely after they’re introduced. We hear ‘alien DNA’ sufficient times to stop wondering about specifics and believe it’s synonymous to magic. Everything is super-transparent and specific and *named*. The fact that Scully herself develops ‘D.P.O.’-like superpowers doesn’t help to swallow the pill (again, when did that happen to her? around ‘En Ami’? back when William was conceived? more recently? why does it only manifest now? is the embryo actually responsible?…). And who knows what superpowers will Skinner have once he recovers. All of this continues even more strongly the latter-seasons’ tendency to make the mythology about the protagonists themselves instead of being something the protagonists discover.

This is a natural evolution of the XF mythology endgame, sure, but this new level of pulpiness is jarring. It is also world-changing. Up to now the X-Files world was one just like our own but with plenty of unbelievable things going on right under the surface. With this wave of mutants and with scientists all over the globe identifying the mutations, the X-Files world becomes something different, other, a very clearly fictional place. The mythology progresses, but verisimilitude is lost.

At the risk of nit-picking, what also bothered me was how explicit, again, everything was regarding the Syndicate. The word ‘Syndicate’ was hardly ever mentioned in dialogue throughout the series’ 11 seasons (I counted: 4 times, and only starting in season 6, ‘Two Fathers’); it mostly went by unnamed, adding to its mysteriousness and pervasiveness. Here, Mulder and Scully are shown to know the names and professions and exact associations with the Syndicate of many operatives, which hints at knowledge they were never shown to have in the series. The CSM’s real name, revealed in ‘My Struggle III’, is repeated so many times that one can’t help but think that this old guy Carl must not have been so bad after all and we were just gaslighted into thinking he was powerful.

“The truth has its own value. Our work saved lives, and gave validation to many people who badly needed it. That’s what we have to remember.”

The couple learn that Scully is expecting a girl. Gray had included a child of Mulder and Scully in her fanfic from all the way back to 1995 when season 2 was airing (“Guardian“, Spooky Award winner!); if it’s any indication for a follow-up novel, the child then was a girl and her name was Rebecca!

Between the new pregnancy and the case file of a serial killer targeting pregnant women, that’s a lot of obsessing about procreation, which follows on the latter season’s mythology. Now that Gray has dealt with all of the mythology leftovers, she might develop her own storylines expressing her own interests. I’m not sure I like her direction for the mythology, but I like her Mulder and Scully.

Obviously, this sets up a sequel or series of follow-up novels — by now, this is standard practice for tie-in merchandising of a big brand owned by the largest entertainment company of the world. As Claudia Gray is also involved in writing tie-in novels for another big Disney property (Star Wars), I can see her writing several of these TXF novels in the future. Besides, it’s quite clear by now that no further Carter/Duchovny/Anderson TXF will be happening, and that any talk of a reboot (with potential Duchovny/Anderson cameos) has been premature: the path is clear for one of these novels popping up every year for the foreseeable future, building their own continuity, as long as they sell enough.

30 years! + news archive

30 years! The big XXX!

The X-Files pilot aired on the now remote but very plausible date of September 10, 1993. On the 20th anniversary I had compared how The X-Files was then as old as its inspiration The Night Stalker was when TXF started (also, 1973: Watergate). For this anniversary, we go further back: 30 years before 1993 is the incredibly remote 1963, right in-between the start of another major inspiration, The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) and the original Star Trek (1966-1969)! (also, 1963: the JFK assassination) 30 years is also longer than it took for both of these shows to get a reboot or reimagining: 26 years for The Twilight Zone of the ’80s, 21 years for Star Trek: The Next Generation also in the ’80s.

So, 30 years. This is my quantitative lists-obsessed side showing, but the history of The X-Files can be nicely broken down in approximately 5-year intervals. You can identify to which “generation” of fan you belong to:

  • Phase 1 / 1993-1998: The rise. TXF is a cult show from the periphery (Vancouver) that becomes big, worldwide. From mystery/sci-fi/horror genre niche fandom to mainstream success. Buzz and merchandising culminate in the release of the summer blockbuster movie Fight the Future.
  • Phase 2 / 1998-2002: The fall. TXF moves to LA and changes its identity: it is a mix of genres, romantic comedy, experimental, horror. In typical practice of the time, it keeps getting renewed until it isn’t, leaving the writers struggling between inspired creativity and diminishing returns. Behind the scenes changes become the text. The fandom changes, and it won’t be the last time. Fanfics write alternative versions of the show. TXF keeps outliving other Ten Thirteen shows. TXF is one of the first TV shows to be fully released on DVD.
  • Phase 3 / 2002-2008: The waiting years. Eat the Corn is founded. Things don’t go as planned for Carter and for the longest time nothing happens. Suddenly, I Want To Believe is made, a non-summer Millennium movie mixed with a relationship drama. A farewell or a new beginning?
  • Phase 4 / 2008-2013: The empty years. The movie franchise idea does not materialize, Carter’s other shows fail to launch. Fans keep clamouring for an XF3 movie. Older sites and forums close, activity shifts to social media, interviews move from print to podcasts.
  • Phase 5 / 2013-2018: The revival years. The renewed interest in TXF from licensed comics and the 20th anniversary celebration, as well as a general cultural trend towards revisiting the past, result in an unexpected return to TV. Twice. TXF is transferred to HD and released in BluRay. Some say the revival was made just as bonus content for where the big money is now, streaming rights for the back catalogue. The revival proves controversial among old fans, but a new generation of fans discover the show.
  • Phase 6 / 2018-2023: The legacy years. TXF is something of the past, cast and crew are asked what the legacy of the show is. The new owner of the TXF brand, Disney, starts expressing interest in a reboot.

Between amazing discoveries and bitterness at how certain things worked out, it has been quite a journey. This story is also a reflection of how the world has changed in these past 30 years, in so many ways. With nostalgia settling in, it’s tempting to become gatekeepers and look presumptuously at all the vocabulary of new fans — mythology becomes lore, monster of the week becomes filler, and horror becomes comfort watching. But that would be a short-sighted approach. Times have changed, and so has the way to experience a show. Nothing can be repeated and everything is different.

Clearly, post-#XF3 campaigns and post-revival, we are now in a different phase. One of reflection, of conserving the history of the show. Of letting aside unanswered plot details and theories and fan factions, and focusing on what made the show impactful and different. A cinematic ambition, thanks to which it does not look dated still today, for the most part. Smart dialogue. Two irresistible actors portraying two iconic characters. A mood, carried by moments without dialogue and by Mark Snow’s music. The anthology/mythology storytelling mix. And lots of episodes, with the hits and the misses and everything in-between: enough episodes to make the show a big enough part of your life as you go through it, to make its characters and settings truly familiar, to make it an experience to remember — something that the fast-food short-lived transitory shows of the streaming era struggle to replicate.

And then there’s that little touch unique to The X-Files — and Millennium — where you have the impression that, believer or skeptic, the show touches your soul. For those fans that endured through these years, and hopefully new fans can feel this too, TXF was more than entertainment. It was that, certainly, but it also impacted us more deeply, intellectually, existentially, religiously. Each fan’s relationship with the show is personal, and specific, and difficult to explain. And thus, this persistent little corner of the internet.

We can only say to Chris Carter, and to everyone else involved with making this: thank you. At the risk of sounding cliché, let’s celebrate — and hope that this show will still be remembered in 30 more years!


This site was last updated with my Vancouver visit already five years ago. Since then, I have been making use of social media over the years for quick updates and links to interesting stuff instead of updating the website per se, as often happens nowadays. But social media is often bad for you; plus, you never know how long these things will last. So, to save you from having to dig through bottomless feeds, I’ve chosen to copy and archive here all the content of Eat The Corn’s Twitter account (no longer in use) and Facebook page. For the site’s visitors, all of this could be new material, especially if you are a saner person and don’t spend much time on social media.

You will find: lots of interviews of writers and crew and cast with quotes and comments; articles; podcasts; news; fanart; funny stuff; old rediscovered stuff; curiosities; and more.

Dead links are a thing already. This is an issue in safeguarding the history of the show and its fandom. In an era of clickbait and AI-written articles, consistency and reliability is important. Eat The Corn has the ambition to become an archival resource for fans and pop culture historians alike — and it has already been used as a resource in published works! The 1013 interviews database counts some 500 entries but there’s just as many and more waiting to be archived, and there are even dead links now for interviews that were still recent when I started this project (that was in 2010, and it sounds so incredibly away now!).

Here are all the social media archival pages and main events for that year:

  • 2011 — La La Land Records starts releasing Mark Snow’s soundtrack
  • 2012 — A certain colonization event doesn’t do as planned
  • 2013 — IDW starts publishing TXF comics; the 20th anniversary at San Diego Comic Con revives interest in TXF
  • 2014 — HD transfer starts airing
  • 2015: 1 2 3 4 5 — revival officially announced and filmed; TXF released on BluRay
  • 2016: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 — Season 10 airs
  • 2017: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 — second revival officially announced and filmed
  • 2018: 1 2 3 4 5 — Season 11 airs; IDW ends its TXF comic runs; the Millennium documentary is produced; X-Fest 1
  • 2019: 1 2 3 4 — X-Fest 2; video games
  • 2020: 1 2 3 4 — The Official Archives book released
  • 2021: 1 2 3 4 — lots of interviews
  • 2022: 1 2 3 — TXF Museum is inaugurated
  • 2023: 1 2 3 4 5 6 — talks of a reboot begin; TXF documentary and Philefest

So, despite appearances, Eat The Corn is not dead. Stay tuned for further communications.

Social media archive: 2023 (part 6)

Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.


Jul 25, 2023 16:50

Another excellent details-filled #TheXFiles interview by @[195561691234370:274:Sammensværgelsen – en dansk X-Files podcast] with an important behind the scenes person, David Gauthier — the mechanical special effects supervisor (i.e., practical on-set stuff, not visual/digital effects) for the first five years in Vancouver and again for the second film.

Episodes mentioned:

  • early episodes: use of punctured tubes made of plastic bags and smoke machines in the forest, this made the defining look of the show!
  • the move from very small studios in the first six episode to Fox’s North Shore Vancouver studios and eventually occupying all of that
  • again, how Chris Carter controlled everything and how great it was to work with him + how amazing all the writers were, and Rob Bowman, Dan Sackheim, David Nutter
  • “Ice”: freezing and reanimating meal worms
  • “Fire”: dealing with fire on set
  • “The Host”: how they shot the Flukeman inside the sewage pipes, and in a sewage plant
  • “Exelsis Dei”: the flooded hospital room scene
  • “End Game”: truckloads of ice for the submarine conning tower scene
  • “Soft Light”: meeting Vince Gilligan
  • “Paper Clip”: sizes of light trusses for the UFO scene
  • “DPO”: lightning made out of steel meshes and lights
  • “731”: making a memorabilia out of an old bell from the train wagon they used
  • “Piper Maru”: getting the newtsuit from a diving company next door to the studios, effect of the black oil in the eye (of course, the French diver was named after him)
  • “Home”: Kim Manners saying he’d never find work again after shooting the teaser
  • “Terma”: complexities of the oil well explosion
  • “Tempus Fugit/Max”: getting the script ahead of time, constructing the plane, mechanics of the abduction scene, scuba diving with DD
  • “Zero Sum”: use of painted pop corn for the bees flying inside a room
  • “Gethsemane”: real snow and freezing temperatures in a warehouse for the Yukon camping scenes
  • “Kill Switch”: trailer explosion, robots design inspired by NASA
  • “Patient X/The Red and the Black”: UFO crash, setting people on fire
  • “Folie à Deux”: how the man in suit approach didn’t work
  • “I Want to Believe”: shooting Mulder’s car crash in the snow, using fake ice for the surgery scenes
  • not involved in the revival, it wouldn’t have been the same after all these years

https://sammensvaergelsen.libsyn.com/website/interview-david-gauthier-special-effects

https://www.facebook.com/Sammensvaergelsen/posts/pfbid0xUyoC2wFnzP5jGFMW35JGhmdUiERpHqsbjqXLLPagtTPfMcqk5cByLBEP3qsvraol


Jul 30, 2023 16:09

15 years already since the release of the second #TheXFiles film, “I Want To Believe”! The show is 30 years old, and it’s hard to believe that as much time has passed between the pilot and IWTB as between IWTB and today… My opinion on that film has not changed much since, there are certainly many things I appreciate — such as the Millenniumistic photography, the Frankenstein aspects of the story, some mythic elements (descent to the underworld), Mark Snow’s music — but the whole thing doesn’t gel. It would have been fine if TXF had made one film every couple of years or so, but as an attempt to relaunch the brand it didn’t meet expectations. Not horrible, not a masterpiece.

Still, I have good memories of winning tickets to the premiere via Spotnitz’s Big Light, attending the July 30 premiere in London, interacting with many fans there from all over Europe, seeing CC/FS/DD/GA up close — and listening to this blockbuster-like remix of the main theme by UNKLE, over and over again while waiting to get in the theatre! (In the meet and greet, CC was asking if somebody from UNKLE was in the audience, I don’t know if they found each other or not.) Let’s celebrate “XF2”!


Aug 05, 2023 13:23

#TheXFiles 1997 soundtrack Songs in the Key of X is out in vinyl!

https://www.facebook.com/EnjoyTheRideRecords/posts/pfbid021Qh9WDS8KUrWTJ9hKh1hEsbirbhQTvbyzcPAcko9y3x7vRqVVq1L9bWC4hC8S6Hpl


Aug 09, 2023 21:49

Here’s a new and different #TheXFiles podcast, “Fandom X Archive”, dedicated on chronicling the early days of the XF fandom! A deep dive in the early to mid 1990s, with alt.tv.x-files newsgroups and the like… I love such academic/fannish stuff, somewhat due to nostalgia! In part, I developed Eat the Corn’s interview database as an archival resource to support such endeavours.

https://aliensupersoldier.com/?p=1839


Aug 18, 2023 18:02

One thing I like in #TheXFiles is the cinematic atmosphere, and this is what these little “no context” videos provide: short clips from episodes not focused on the actors but on these moments between when the plot happens, a still camera fade in or a moving crane shot, when we linger on a setting, a forest, an object, a mood…

Season 4:

Full playlist with seasons 1-7: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJ5SdDogH5i2ly4Vrzll6XZTmQji0CNsb


Aug 24, 2023 14:40

#aphextwin’s ambient electronic track “Windowsill” sounds…quite a bit like #TheXFiles main theme. And sure enough I checked, this track was released some 6 months after the TXF pilot aired, in March 1994!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selected_Ambient_Works_Volume_II


Aug 29, 2023 23:07

Before #TheXFiles there was the #twilightzone! @[100057694884330:2048:Frank Spotnitz] talked to the @[100064733644766:2048:Rod Serling Memorial Foundation] about how TZ was a big influence on TXF and on pretty much anything on television in the past 60 years, and how we should celebrate Serling’s unique brand of humanistic storytelling. Interview runs from 2:06:50 to 2:51:50. What’s *your* favourite TZ episode? (And yes I’m pretty sure it was not the Dusky Realm.)

https://www.facebook.com/RSMemorialFoundation/videos/3499712833614340


Sep 01, 2023 19:56

A new interview with Dan Sackheim by @[195561691234370:274:Sammensværgelsen – en dansk X-Files podcast]! He was a producer and director at key moments of #TheXFiles: he helped set the tone of the show from the very beginning and he produced the first movie. He is quite candid and you can hear his love and respect for Carter and the show. Highlights:

Launching TXF:

  • Carter was playing softball with Michael Duggan [later a writer/producer in Millennium s3], Duggan set up a meeting for Carter to first meet Sackheim.
  • Carter was convinced to hire Sackheim when he referred to Errol Morris’ documentary “The Thin Blue Line”, which had inspired Carter when he was thinking of the visual identity of the show.
  • Carter was concerned that the director of the pilot episode was not creative enough, he wanted a producer with a sense of visual acumen.
  • Sackheim remembers that during the shooting of the pilot, a key grip fell into a grave hole and broke his leg.
  • Shooting Deep Throat, Conduit, The Host (which he finds silly)…
  • Learning from Carter the importance of visual storytelling, the importance of telling a story from a point of view.

Fight the Future:

  • He read the script on Carter’s computer when Carter was trying to convince him to produce it, he accepted in exchange of him and Carter developing Harsh Realm!
  • It was the first movie he was producing, he doesn’t know why Carter chose him! He learnt on the spot, made mistakes.
  • Only 8 weeks of prep was very challenging.
  • Memories from shooting FTF: David frustrated at Martin Landau missing his lines during the alley scene, using fake ice, improvising with the prosthetics of the aliens, shooting inserts with the second unit, David frustrated shooting the scenes with the bees (“the bees have a better union than I do!”), they ended up using CGI bees and could have done shooting without real bees (!), the ice stage was under hot lights and the ice was melting, there were negotiations with the “Independence Day” producers to allow to show Mulder peeing below the poster, they nicknamed the Antarctica base “Ice Station Zebra” [after the 1960s espionage thriller].
  • There were conversations that if there was going to be a sequel then he might direct it.

TXF s5+ and Harsh Realm:

  • In early seasons things were malleable, by the time he returned in s5 things were very fixed.
  • Shooting Kitsunegari, SR819 (having to play marriage therapist between Mitch and Arlene!)…
  • He spent a lot of time in the editing room during s6-7 and for #Millennium and #HarshRealm. [He also directed the excellent MM episode Closure]
  • He recut IWTB with Carter, Spotnitz and the editor, it was a small budget. [He is uncredited, first time I hear of this!]
  • He was asked to join the revival, but didn’t want to do what he had already done.
  • A change in the Fox network hierarchy resulted in Harsh Realm being cancelled.
  • In 2013, he, Carter and Spotnitz discussed rebooting Harsh Realm (!) — it would have been a different show, but they couldn’t agree on a common vision, on how to make the virtual stakes real. [This is the first I hear of this, and I would have loved it if this would have been made!…]

https://sammensvaergelsen.libsyn.com/website/interview-dan-sackheim

https://www.facebook.com/Sammensvaergelsen/posts/pfbid02a69G2UyTGEfarSaaTCih7Qq4ybaSuaRJjcBr9tg9xa3Yc4YQ6tkJqSmdKoFmuKEQl

Social media archive: 2023 (part 5)

Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.


May 29, 2023 18:44

The first interview ever with Brad Follmer, courtesy of @[100064600333206:2048:The X-Cast\: An X-Files Podcast]! He was Chris Carter’s assistant on #TheXFiles from mid-season 7 (the first episode he is credited in is First Person Shooter) to season 9, and he is credited as staff writer in season 11. Unfortunately the sound quality is not good, but here are the key takeaways:

  • The first episode he watched was X-Cops, preparing for an interview to get a job on the show; he still hasn’t watched the entire series.
  • Cary Elwes’ character was named after him. Elwes used to call on the phone: “This is Brad Follmer calling, is this Brad Follmer?”
  • He remembers Burt Reynolds being on set shooting the casino scenes for Improbable. After shooting, Reynolds sent Carter *half* an award he got (People’s Choice Award for Evening Shade).
  • The Mulder family (Carter’s mother’s family) were dairy farmers. Carter knew what time every Starbucks in LA West Side opened and he was always the first one in the office every morning.
  • David Duchovny (unclear if it was him because of the audio?) used to call to ask for scripts to auction off, he gave Follmer the nickname Bartleby, from the Herman Melville short story about a clerk who says when asked to do tasks: “I would prefer not to”.
  • The Lone Gunmen pilot (the one about a plane crashing into the WTC made 6 months before 9/11) was being prepared around the time Carter and Spotnitz were called on a CIA outreach program to discuss potential national security threats with Hollywood writers, but because of scheduling they couldn’t attend.
  • Wade Allen was Carter’s personal trainer, Carter thought that Annabeth Gish could do some training, and that’s how she met Wade, they later married.
  • Shooting Requiem: Carter was very secretive about the ending, he wrote the last pages the day of the shooting, he was driving to the shooting with 3 copies of the last pages of the script on a Friday night, to Big Bear mountain, a 2-3 hours drive from LA but with traffic, with the crew waiting.
  • Carter’s research question for The Truth: what’s the government’s most secret facility?
  • Carter’s research question for Fight Club: what are other nicknames for the boxing ring, like the squared circle? Via his mother, Follmer found Mohamed Ali’s trainer Angelo Dundee to ask!
  • Follmer and Gabe Rotter did write the script for an episode for season 10, initially as a back-up in case Carter didn’t manage to do his 3 episodes – about fungi causing zombies (audio unclear?). They boarded it, they wrote a draft, then Duchovny was going to be available only for limited days so they rewrote it, then Anderson was going to be available for less days so they rewrote. Things were very close to Carter directing it, they tried to shoehorn it to be produced as a 7th episode. When season 11 was made, there were other ideas, so it was never made.
  • Since the revival, Follmer has worked with Carter, one has helped the other in projects, and he has worked with Gabe Rotter and Ben Van Allen on various projects that haven’t materialised yet.


May 30, 2023 15:24

[SPANISH] Estos primeros 12 a 16 números del cómic, de Stefan Petrucha (yo digo Petruka, no sé) y Charlie Adlard, fueron unas de las primeras cosas que encontré como fan de #TheXFiles, y todavía quedan siendo unas de mis cosas favoritas que produjo la “marca” TXF! En éste podcast se habla mucho de esos, y de varios detalles sabrosos de cómo se hicieron. Es verdad que se adelantaron con muchas cosas que hizo la serie después (Tunguska, Unruhe, Field Trip…yo añadiría Demons y José Chung con lo del control de la mente y de no saber que era la verdad y que no).

https://www.facebook.com/AguanteMulder/posts/pfbid02h2h53WvjEUrbAQtaMNgDsSNeKaDhBNHjvWJLFVpvvrx1WnUHaUUoZUvrbZstFHhgl


May 31, 2023 14:01

Sad news – John Beasley, Emma Hollis’ father in 3 episodes of Millennium, has passed away. I also knew him from some episodes of Treme.

Everwood‘s John Beasley Dead at 79


Jun 08, 2023 15:44

Frank Spotnitz was interviewed following yet another “whistleblower” story in the news related to UFOs secrecy in the US intelligence. (Actual revelation? Fake news? Useful idiot? True believer? Who knows?)

The site needs a VPN to be seen by European visitors… Here’s what it says:

“The X-Files” producer Frank Spotnitz told NewsNation’s “Banfield” he’s a skeptic of the military whistleblower’s secret UFO claims but he would “love to be convinced.” Spotnitz said the claims could have a positive, profound effect on humanity. “Aliens are like trying to prove there’s a God. If you could, that would have profound effects on everything,” Spotnitz said. “It would change our understanding of each other. … It might bring us closer together because there’d be this other threat that’s not human. We’re always looking for the bad guy, but in this case, it wouldn’t be other people, it’d be someone else out there.” Spotnitz also revealed that he’s still in touch with Chris Carter, producer for “The X-Files.” Spotnitz said that Carter is less skeptical than he is about the recent claims.

(Thanks Adam Silva)

https://www.newsnationnow.com/banfield/ufo-claims-could-be-positive-x-files-e-p/


Jun 19, 2023 21:09

25 years since the absolute #TheXFiles summer blockbuster, whose tagline became the title, “Fight The Future”. 25 YEARS! Here’s the trailer, hard to describe the excitement when this first aired on TV and I recorded it on VHS.

Some trivia:

  • the trailer was originally released 21 November 1997, well in advance and barely after principal photography had finished! In theaters, it premiered with… “Mortal Kombat” (lol) and “Alien: Resurrection” (https://groups.google.com/g/alt.tv.x-files/c/Ma4PJv2f8rE/m/JuZM7qgJsYkJ)
  • the music used toward the end is from the soundtrack to… Baz Luhrman’s “Romeo+Juliet”, by Nellee Hooper/Craig Armstrong/Marius de Vries, track “Escape from Mantua” (https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ_Wiuwz67I)
  • the trailer saw the debut of the modified TXF logo, allegedly because “20th Century Fox” and “Fox TV Studios” wanted to differentiate their products.

Jun 29, 2023 19:38

A nice interview with Chris Carter (CC) from last week, with #TheXFiles Diaries, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of the Fight the Future (FTF) film.

https://xfilesdiaries.libsyn.com/127-fight-the-future-with-chris-carter

Some well-known stories, but also some new information, summarized here [plus my comments]:

  • Dori (CC’s wife) and Mary Astadourian (Ten Thirteen vice-president and CC’s assistant) were in the Hawaii trip together with CC and Frank Spotnitz on Christmas 1996, when they came up with the storyline for FTF [who took notes, I wonder? :D]
  • The FTF story was the only story they developed for the film, that’s all they had time for
  • CC is happy that FTF was made on budget, Fox was scrutinizing them carefully, all the more because James Cameron’s Titanic was going way over budget!
  • The feature and TV business branches of Fox didn’t talk to each other: the second unit (was shooting ice scenes) got news that the movie was greenlit before CC knew of it!
  • CC watched Mission: Impossible as a kid, that’s where he knew Martin Landau from
  • Strughold, Bronschweig, Kurtzweil: the movie’s German names are just a coincidence [so much for reading into that…]
  • CC’s grandfather (Carl Gerhard Busch) was German
  • Throughout the series, CC didn’t like the way that DD ate sunflower seeds
  • The almost kiss in the middle and the mouth to mouth scene at the end, there was no intended correlation, these were coincidences [so much for reading into these two scenes rhyming…]
  • DD kind of contributed with the idea of a love triangle between Mulder-Scully-Fowley [and CC ran with it!]
  • CC confirms that the Well-Manicured Man committed suicide [because he was done for, and to give Mulder a head start – if anyone was still doubting that]
  • For those wondering about Washington DC geography: when Mulder tells the taxi to go to Arlington, he’s heading to another bar
  • During the construction of the geodesic domes in the ice field, a worker spent the night in one of them, and he says that there was a polar bear around
  • Mark Snow’s wife is the one whose whistle can be heard at the end of the IWTB soundtrack
  • The Foo Fighters were going to play at the FTF premiere after-party but they cancelled at the last minute
  • Mulder peed *below* the Independence Day poster (not *on*), this was done as an appreciation of the movie [my life is ruined!]

Jul 18, 2023 18:04

A mini-#TheXFiles reunion at the WGA & SAG-AFTRA strike picket line in front of Fox studios today, where the series was shot! #WGAstrike #SAGAFTRAStrike solidarity! David Duchovny, Annabeth Gish, Rob Bowman, John Shiban, Steven Maeda, Daniel Arkin, Tom Schnauz and more were there — with slogans like “the residuals are out there”! Here’s an interview with director Rob Bowman: “I’m here to support my brothers and sisters in the Writers Guild. If somebody compliments something I’ve done, I always say, ‘I get my inspiration from the script.’

+ more here:

https://www.givememyremote.com/remote/2023/07/17/the-x-files-reunion-wga-sag-aftra-strike-david-duchovny-rob-bowman/
https://deadline.com/2023/07/actors-strike-david-duchovny-x-files-reunion-rosario-dawson-hilary-duff-1235440044/
https://tvline.com/news/david-duchovny-picket-sign-the-x-files-the-residuals-are-out-there-strike-1235014917/
https://twitter.com/possumlives/status/1681049151654748160

Social media archive: 2023 (part 4)

Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.


May 06, 2023 20:11

A nice little interview with @[100057694884330:2048:Frank Spotnitz] from a month ago.

Midway through he talks about the experience of being in #TheXFiles writers staff. It sounds both like a dream job and like a nightmare, you gave it your all or you’re out. I can understand why those who lived through it have a devotion to the captain of the ship Chris Carter and feel a very strong bond with each other. And I can also understand why the writers group were seen as a sort of single gentlemen’s club:

  • Spotnitz and Carter first talked toward the end of the first season. Mid-season 2, Spotnitz was recruited directly, straight out of film school, not as freelance, but to come on staff, to replace the best writers who were leaving (Morgan and Wong)!
  • Carter “was a very demanding boss, it was a very competitive environment”. “It was exactly the show for me, having watched #startrek and The #twilightzone as a kid, I got it.”
  • In 3 years he got from staff writer to executive producer, from the bottom to the top.
  • The best things about Carter were “his ruthless intelligence and his incredible ambition”. “It could not be good enough, he demanded everybody give their best, if it wasn’t enough you’d leave [at] 11 at night.” “For 8 years I lived and breathed The X-Files.” The obsessed writer in Milagro was him, “I spent more time thinking about these fictitious [sic] characters than any real person in my real life.”
  • Carter demanded and insisted, and that’s why all those writers did all this good work. “It wasn’t always fun, it was certainly stressful.”

https://www.spreaker.com/user/10740198/eyewitness-history-frank-spotnitz-with-a


May 12, 2023 21:03

@[100050989916643:2048:The Companion] has an exclusive #TheXFiles reunion discussion between @[100057694884330:2048:Frank Spotnitz], Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish! (Well, the actual recording was made in July 2022 and was available to Companion patrons – more TXF and other content is available there!).

Podcast: https://share.transistor.fm/s/a502d03e
Video: https://www.thecompanion.app/the-x-files-doggett-reyes-reunion-video/

As usual, a summary of what was said:

This is the first time they all meet since show ended, approximately.

FS: in preparation for this interview, it’s the first time he rewatched s8-9 episodes in 20 years.

The casting process:

  • RP didn’t audition, he met with CC and FS, and read for the network with Rick Millikan.
  • AG auditioned with Rick, then tested for the network; she was nervous, remembers CC didn’t want her to wear a belt and liked the pants she was wearing specifically, and the adjective for Reyes was “sunny”.

Shooting TXF:

  • RP remembers joining a juggernaut, FS was very calming, there were a lot in the fanbase who were not happy.
  • RP wanted to work in network TV after working on The Sopranos.
  • AG remembers the production was a family, it was a machine of chaos and beauty.
  • FS: they consciously crafted characters to respond to fans’ expectations that this is not M&S.
  • RP: Doggett is his favourite character he’s played, close with Scorpion.
  • AG: Doggett was a harbinger of new masculinity, tough but with a heart of gold.
  • FS: “all TXF characters were emotionally repressed”.
  • AG: in all characters there are restraints.
  • FS: CC had said you don’t write the emotion in the script, you let the actors play the emotion.
  • FS: with new characters there were new opportunities, storytelling changed in the final 2 seasons, the show took a Twilight Zone feel.
  • FS: while making Alone he realised that directing is the best job, he had the same experience with Daemonicus.
  • Thanks are given to Tony Wharmby, John Shiban, Vince Gilligan, Michelle McLaren.
  • Kim Manners wanted to direct John Doe so bad, but schedules resulted in Michelle McLaren getting it.
  • RP remembers meeting DD in his trailer.
  • FS: in William’s birth scene, “Reyes is like sister to Scully”.
  • AG: in conventions, everybody asks her to do whale songs. She doesn’t speak Spanish, she learnt some for John Doe.
  • RP & AG remember the long working hours of the “Fraturdays”.
  • FS remembers his wife Melissa was responsible for AG meeting her husband Wade (Allen), RP remembers himself introducing them. Wade was RP’s “krav maga guy”, he was a production assistant on TXF.
  • RP’s son Sam was born during his first episodes on TXF. He remembers shooting Within/Without in the desert in Borrego Springs (they say it’s the same place as William’s birth place [actually no, but The Truth was also filmed there]), his wife Barbara was very pregnant, it was very hot. He remembers calling Michelle McLaren to say he would miss shooting because she was delivering. He remembers Barbara shooting Release.
  • RP has been friends with Lance Henriksen since 1989.
  • FS: CC was the first to arrive and the last to leave. Kim Manners poured his heart and soul in it, he never got jaded.
    There was no ad libbing on TXF, everything was scripted. There were read throughs during lunch with the cast. There was even ADR during lunch breaks.
  • AG: TXF had money and time, so they could rehearse a bit, it is not the case any more in modern productions.

Favourites:

  • RP: Via Negativa
  • AG: 4D, Audrey Pauley
  • FS: Via Negativa was inspired by a dream where he squeezes toothpaste and blood comes out, and he didn’t know what was reality any more. He loved Redrum, 4D, Audrey Pauley, Release.

The original ending and the original plans:

  • FS: remembers shooting The Truth, Reyes’ monologue “was my last gift to TXF”.
  • AG: there was a lot of frustration then.
  • FS remembers a New York Times Magazine articles 2 weeks after 9/11 saying that TXF was no longer “in” but “out” and ratings were down. When the show ended there was a planned movie franchise, they had planned multiple storylines with Mulder, Scully, Doggett, Reyes; but the CC/Fox lawsuit dragged for 5 years and after that Fox wanted no aliens, only a small monster of the week movie.
  • RP remembers shooting in Stage 7 (Scary Monsters?) and CC came, he wanted RP to be the first to know they were not returning, RP was devastated, if they were not cancelled he would have done it forever.

On the revival:

  • RP: Joel McHale’s monologue in My Struggle 1 was “right on”, it was a precursor to today’s world.
  • FS: “the revival was tough for me”, he wanted to do it but he couldn’t get involved.
  • RP was asked in the revival and he wanted to do it but he was contractually engaged elsewhere.
  • AG was happy to go back, but her role didn’t make sense, “I didn’t understand what I was doing”, FS was missed.
  • Reyes smoking Morleys in her first episode then turning to the dark side in the revival: that was not in FS’s mind at the time, but certainly CC thought about that in the revival. Reyes was conceived to be more relaxed and human as a character.

On where they are now:

  • AG imagines Doggett and Reyes still “orbiting each other”, but not together.
  • RP: TXF had values, the country is looking for that kind of leadership.
  • FS: today, Reyes would be high up in the FBI hierarchy. Doggett would have left the FBI in disgust. Reyes would like Doggett back. Season 12 would start with Doggett being called back.
  • FS: all 4 characters had integrity. “There’s a hunger for values, things that unite right and left”. What TXF stands for is relevant right now.


May 17, 2023 15:08

YES! “#TheXFiles: The Official Archives Volume II: Extraterrestrial Activity and the Syndicate” by Paul Terry Cellarscape will be out 21 Dec 2023! Can’t wait to see mythology-related props up close!

“A fully authorized, richly illustrated inside look at the case files of Mulder and Scully’s encounters with extraterrestrial activity and the Syndicate.
Following the revelations of the cases declassified in The X-Files: The Official Archives: Cryptids, Biological Anomalies, and Parapsychic Phenomena comes this vital second volume of top-secret X-files. The X-Files: The Official Archives: Volume II: Extraterrestrial Activity and the Syndicate details Agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder’s close encounters with alien beings and exposes the secrets of the shadowy Syndicate. Featuring UFOs, little green men, and the conspiracies to hide them from the public, these richly detailed and painstakingly re-created case files open up the X-Files universe like never before. These vital cases served as the backbone to the cult television series and provided a powerful throughline and emotional lifeline for Agent Mulder. Now, through archival imagery and unredacted reports, fans can experience firsthand the thrills of some of the series’ most beloved episodes, including “Deep Throat,” “Jose Chung’s from Outer Space,” “Fight the Future,” “Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man,” and many more.”

(no image yet – this is Volume 1)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/X-Files-Official-Archives-Extraterrestrial-Syndicate/dp/1419771396/


May 22, 2023 17:06

[SPANISH] Soy un gran fan de la música de #TheXFiles. En éste gran podcast se habla en detalles del soundtrack que se estrenó en 1996, “Songs in the Key of X” y fue un gran placer escuchar todo eso — Nick Cave, Foo Fighters, Soul Coughing… Pero NO se habla en bien de la música monumental de Mark Snow. Así que no voy a hacer la promoción de este episodio que se puede escuchar aquí:

https://www.facebook.com/AguanteMulder/posts/pfbid02A4jQFsx62yH1oKpkyaXkkLEXWAtHCiaQsdb27UDEjfTQYWEuzfrVtxzMDoCJtTSFl


May 23, 2023 13:24

[SPANISH] Sigue el podcast Aguante Mulder sobre la música de #TheXFiles, esta vez sobre la música de las dos películas, sobre todo “The Album” de Fight the Future (con Filter, Foo Fighters, y sobre todo mi favorito, el instrumental de Noel Gallagher, Teotihuacan!) pero también con las algunas canciones de I Want To Believe. De nuevo, se habla poco de Mark Snow, pero es un placer escuchar una discusión sobre estos productos derivados.

PD: en Eat The Corn analizamos la explicación de toda la mitología por Chris Carter al final del CD de FTF aquí: http://www.eatthecorn.com/1013-the-truth-revealed/

https://www.facebook.com/AguanteMulder/posts/pfbid02N4cqVH81c5j2wK3riBr6pKUk3Pe6qqo9eVm1vmLHmK3PH78Nf9DZqASYysSjPrPPl

 

Social media archive: 2023 (part 3)

Archived from the Eat The Corn Facebook page.


Apr 06, 2023 19:54

New Chris Carter interview, courtesy of the Conspiracy podcast @[195561691234370:274:Sammensværgelsen – en dansk X-Files podcast]!

As usual, summary below [and my comments]:

  • Was the original plan to stop #TheXFiles after 5 seasons and do a movie franchise after? “No”. [Ha! Persistent rumour has been shot down. So this information, as old as the internet, must only refer to the objective of making enough episodes to go to syndication, not anything related to the mythology or long-term planning.]
  • CC reminisces about making the first movie (25 years ago!). They didn’t try to bring Armin Mueller-Stahl (Strughold) back after the film in season 6 because he lives in Europe; CC did think of him for season 11 (hence the role of Mr Y was created).
  • CC recently wrote something with Terry O’Quinn (Peter Watts in Millennium, among others) in mind for a role, but he’s busy. [CC seems to have plenty of projects, but nothing has materialized yet.]
  • The mix of episodic-serialized was conceived from the beginning before the pilot was made.
  • CC is still very proud of “Duane Barry”, the first episode he directed. He used David Nutter’s method of using drawings for planning the blocking of scenes.
  • CC’s “Syzygy” was “directly inspired” by Darin Morgan’s “Humbug”. [Obvious, but finally, a direct confirmation!]
  • He no longer remembers the plans he and Spotnitz had for films after season 9 regarding the 2012 and the alien invasion. [So much information about all this is now water under the bridge…]
  • Again, CC reiterates that he never imagined that “My Struggle IV” would be the finale of the show.
  • CC let the cat out of the bag with that interview about the Ryan Coogler remount of TXF, Fox TV actually wants to make a big announcement about it. [So Disney is very much serious about this project. I expect we’ll know more not too long from now.]
  • Fox/Disney entirely owns TXF, so they can do whatever they like, they just have been kind enough to be collaborative with CC in their decisions up to now. [Contrary to what I thought, CC/Ten Thirteen doesn’t co-own the brand! Perhaps CC’s involvement is good news in this case.]
  • CC cancelled the “Albuquerque” TXF animated project because he couldn’t imagine it without Mulder and Scully. [But wouldn’t Coogler’s re-whatever be without M&S too? Or is Coogler planning to recast M&S?]
  • CC and Glen Morgan discussed at length making a prequel around the Cigarette-Smoking Man shortly after season 11, Morgan pitched it, but couldn’t convince Fox about it. [I can’t imagine what this would look like! Unreliable narrator like in “Musings”? Mythology-only with historical persons cameos like Dark Skies? Sound like a mythology fan’s wet dream, but I can’t imagine it being more than a limited series.]
  • CC and Glen Morgan discussed at length doing a reboot of #Millennium, but “we put that on the back burner, it’s closed right now”. [Impressive, but disappointing, and he didn’t expand on why they abandoned it. Interesting that Carter & Morgan worked together on all these potential projects! I’m curious if a MM reboot could have worked — Carter has used the word ‘reboot’ for the TXF revival as well, so they might have had a MM revival in mind with Lance Henriksen, now 82, as old as Patrick Stewart in Star Trek Picard. Possible, but also an extremely uphill battle.]

https://www.facebook.com/Sammensvaergelsen/posts/pfbid027KW8h9uadi7pTk819Nucz5uSgzQjH1eBeCZxcJbx26L53cygxvGzArLunRk9Wfr5l

https://sammensvaergelsen.libsyn.com/website/interview-chris-carter-2


Apr 13, 2023 10:11

[FRENCH] Podcast sur le film #TheXFiles, sorti il y a quand même 25 ans ! A l’époque, l’excitation était à son comble. Habitant en Europe, le film était sorti des mois après les Etats-Unis, et j’avais été spoilé sur une grande partie des révélations mythologiques en lisant des magazines.

https://podcast.ausha.co/le-coin-pop/the-x-files-fight-the-future-le-premier-film


May 05, 2023 20:23

Coverage of a January interview with Chris Carter (catching up on my backlog) from @[100064600333206:2048:The X-Cast\: An X-Files Podcast]!

A summary and highlights below [with my comments]:

About #TheXFiles:

  • DD & GA’s casting process with Randy Stone: they were both CC’s first choices. On the casting sheets, CC wrote for DD “yes”, for GA “test”. CC stuck to his guns to cast GA, there was a second actress that the network wanted. [We will probably never know who that was!]
  • Their chemistry was obvious already from shooting that first scene in the basement office.
  • Robert Patrick and Annabeth Gish both got their roles thanks to their previous work, they didn’t actually read for their parts. Fire in the Sky was a precursor to TXF and CC cast RP because of it.
  • On the pilot: there are tweaks he could make to it; a comedic bit that he could have left in (during the driving scene, Mulder makes a joke about a bagel), but he wanted the show to be dramatic before comedic; he didn’t know if the bloody nose effect would work.
  • Gender-consistent choice would have been for man to be skeptic, woman to be intuitive, M&S made the pilot distinctive.
  • TXF’s serialized quality was a precursor to today’s shows. The first movie resulted in season 8’s serialized approach, the show took a “right turn”. [Linking FTF to s8 is an odd connection, given how much later s8 happened and the circumstances around DD’s partial presence. Note the use of “right turn”, the same expression CC used for describing the revival mythology compared to what came before, for him it looks like this can mean something new in style or in content.]
  • Advice to aspiring show-runners: stick to your guns. So many people gave notes, and that impacted the quality and compromised the excellence of what CC set out to do. Of all the people who gave CC notes, now there are only two in business. [I love a show-runner with a vision. But doesn’t CC sound a bit vindictive here?]
  • TXF/Picket Fences cross-over was cancelled by the network to avoid a cross-pollination of audience.
  • Challenging times: shooting End Game, Paper Clip, FTF, that year of TXF s5 + FTF + MM s2 (and 20+ episode seasons) was the hardest year of his life. [I can believe that!]
  • Again, he stresses that he didn’t do this show alone and that it was a team effort. Throughout, there are nods to Dan Sackheim, Bob Goodwin, David Nutter, Peter Wunstorf (MM pilot director of photography), Kim Manners, Rob Bowman, Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, the women who worked on the show. [I have criticized CC myself on certain storytelling choices, but I will never criticize how strong he was as an overall show-runner, pushing and motivating everyone around him.]

About the revival:

  • My Struggle I & II appear to have pleased the “Q-Anon crowd”, and he doesn’t know what to think about that. [As Darin Morgan astutely commented in his episode, conspiracies no longer mean what they meant in the 1990s in general culture. Difficult to do TXF’s mythology today in the same way as back then.]
  • While shooting was going on for My Struggle IV, he was still undecided about the ending. Gillian Anderson made some comments online about this being the end for her. So he had to make some dramatic choices for the ending. [Again, this doesn’t align that well with the chronology of events, unless Carter didn’t believe Anderson meant it until the 11th hour.]

About #Millennium:

  • David Fincher sought Carter out, they had lunch and discussed the project of doing the greatest serial killer series, which turned out to be #mindhunter, which Carter finds excellent [it is!], CC feels Millennium was an inspiration.
  • The Millennium pilot was the result of TXF: “Irresistible”, there was an appetite for telling stories about things that were not supernatural.
  • CC feels sorry that MM went off the air, he inadvertently pulled the plug on it, whereas Fox would have gone forward with a 4th season and maybe more. Given that CC was going to launch Harsh Realm, he wouldn’t have had time to spend on MM, and that was a premature decision. CC advised Jon Bokenkamp, the creator of #TheBlacklist, on its pilot an on how to spend your energy; years later, Bokenkamp was hesitating to pull the plug on the series and CC told him it would be a mistake: you never know where your next hit will be, you’d better stay with the winner until the bitter end. [This is an interesting confession from CC. The mind races with what could have been: MM seasons 4 and 5? On the other hand, this approach of sticking with what works no matter what is a two-edged swords, it explains CC’s unwillingness to ever, ever end TXF despite the writing being on the wall.]
  • More MM/TXF crossovers would have happened if MM had continued. [And I would hope better too!]
  • Recently, he saw Ryan Murphy’s Jeffrey #dahmer series and liked it, and this inspired him to talk to “somebody” about a MM reboot. [I am both excited and afraid. Amazing how the greenlight for many projects seems to be dependent on the mood of TV executives and what’s trendy these days.]

About the legacy of the show:

  • The TXF novel that is currently being worked on follows on chronologically from the events of My Struggle IV. [All previous tie-in novels have essentially been stand-alone investigations and I can’t imagine a novel continuing the story in a substantial way, it will feel weird if it does. Until it’s retconned by something else in the future, like with the comics?]
  • He thinks that Joe Harris did an excellent job with the comics, but doesn’t remember much about the MM comics. [Nice! But again, too bad that the revival de-canonized them and that the revival forced Harris’ Season 11 being cut short from the initial plans.]
  • If anybody watches 30 years from now, it will be because of Mulder and Scully and their relationship.
  • There are no plans for the show’s 30th anniversary this year. [So nothing from Fox/Disney, only fan-organized events.]

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https://pod.link/1157097612/episode/534ef2668ededfe3790cfc22a5ef805d