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Apr
30
2024

Interview: Glen Morgan

Listen to Glen Morgan trying to hide his frustration with shippers in this interview with The X-Files Diaries! As always, my detailed notes below:

  • Morgan & Wong were about to sign for “Moon over Miami” run by Harley Peyton (of Twin Peaks; it lasted half a season), but then watched TXF pilot and wanted in. They were sort of pushed to work with Carter by Peter Roth. Marilyn Osborne also shifted to TXF over from the Steven J Cannell productions.
  • Carter would have been happy to have done UFO of the week, the network and Roth were pushing for more stuff. Gordon & Gansa were not sure what the show was about, they did weird science. Morgan & Wong did horror. [That’s really important, imagine if Carter had got his way!]
  • There was no writers room then, only for comedies. They only got together to talk about ideas.
  • He acknowledges the great directors Bowman, Nutter and Manners. M&W wanted Nutter and Manners over from Cannell, but Goodwin didn’t want them, they had done things that were out of style like The A-Team. But then some directors dropped out and they were brought in. Morgan worked with Kim’s brother Kelly in Space: Above and Beyond.
  • “Squeeze/Tooms“: M&W’s office was a small box, there were cockroaches. Wong thought what if a guy came out of the air vent. Morgan thought of how serial killer Richard Ramirez could break into people’s homes and thought what if a man could stretch. Carter had been to France recently and was spooked by foie gras, thought what if a man eats livers. Morgan visited an escalator that was being repaired, thought what if Tooms lived there. [No mention of the liver-eating mutant of The Night Strangler as an inspiration!]
  • “Beyond the Sea“: was about his mother reacting to her own father passing.
  • “Home“: they figured that Scully would start thinking of motherhood at her age, judging from personal friends and Gillian being a mother. “Wonderful, Wonderful” was one of his mom’s favourite songs.
  • “The Field Where I Died“: his father had a fascination with reincarnation. Ken Burns “The Civil War” documentary series was an inspiration, in that a man called Sullivan wrote a letter accompanied by violin music called “Ashokan Farewell“. The people Kristen portrayed were all people they knew. Heaven’s Gate and Jonestown were inspirations, there are misunderstood things about those tragedies. The regression scenes were both running 8-10 min long each, they had to cut severely like 8 min, he had to cut things that gave more legitimacy to Scully’s point of view. (Goodwin’s cut of “One Breath” ran 16 min long!) Wong likes crane shots. The point of the episode was that we do not have one but a bunch of soul mates.
  • “Musings of a CSM“: Bill Davis gave Wong grief while shooting, he thought the script was making fun of him (Lance Henriksen thought the same in Millennium). Based on comic The Autobiography of Lex Luthor. They were fascinated by the CSM in the pilot, who is he? In “Tooms” and “One Breath”, Bob Goodwin said don’t give him a line or scene, he can’t act! Morgan wrote “Musings” as if the CSM really did these things. Carter and executive Ken Horton thought they should change “Memoirs” to “Musings” to make it more ambiguous, and didn’t want Frohike to die. M&W tried to create a shot of Frohike getting shot with a sign and Hershey’s syrup, tried to put it in the cut that the network would see, but the shot disappeared! Over time, Morgan has to give credit to Carter, there’s another reading of the character if the CSM was a failed writer. There’s even a link with “Forehead Sweat”, maybe the CSM was reinforcing his own memory to convince himself he did these things. Says Darin is the better writer. [Even Glen says that!]
  • “Never Again“: “where’s Scully’s desk” was in response to online fan comments. Morgan and Gillian wanted Scully to have sex (Mulder had had flings so why not?), Carter didn’t think that was right for the character. He had a disagreement with Carter, but it’s his show, his decision (he doesn’t sound bitter). He didn’t edit the ep, he wrote it and was out. Frustrated that this episode didn’t air after the Superbowl.
  • Revival: He tried to watch almost all the episodes to catch up. [Wow!] The marketing people thought “Founder’s Mutation” would fit better as the 2nd ep and it was switched with “Home Again”. For “This”, he felt they were plodding so he wanted to kick off things with more action. The s11 cinematographer Craig Wrobleski was great, he wished they had him more. The handcuff line in “This” was pandering to shippers!
  • When they start discussing the Mulder-Scully ship: “You two need therapy!” [That’s my Morgan!]
  • In early discussions with Fox: if Scully sees an alien or if they kiss, the show’s over.
  • All couples on TV were fooling around, but they wanted to be different, two people can be very emotionally attached without sex, and you didn’t see that on TV.
  • But, every good show recalibrates itself over time, he sees why M&S ended up together in the long term.- He is proud of the Scully effect.
  • The genius of Carter is “I want to believe”, not “I believe”, not “I don’t believe”.

https://xfilesdiaries.libsyn.com/138-glen-morgan-interview

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Apr
09
2024

Interview: David Amann

A rare interview by Sammensværgelsen – en dansk X-Files podcast with David Amann, one of the “next gen” writers that joined The X-Files in season 6 and stayed until season 9. What comes out of these interviews is what a tight ship Captain Carter ran, and how over time he built trust and delegated to his Commanders John Gillnitz, and how all the newcomers were like temporary Lieutenants who were struggling to keep the high quality standards. My notes on David Amann’s interview below.

  • A couple of years before coming in on TXF in s6, he was first offered a job on Millennium but he chose Chicago Hope. TXF was just his second job.
  • He and the new “low-level writers” who joined in s6 (Jeff Bell, Dan Arkin) were at a crappy trailer at the edge of the Fox lot, separate from where Spotnitz and Carter and co were. The young writers formed a mini-writers room to help each other out, but there was no real writers room.
  • They’d develop an idea, pitch it to Spotnitz/Gilligan/Shiban (sometimes Carter), break it, refine it, often started anew. Plenty, plenty of ideas were shut down. Trying very hard not to repeat themselves. Steep learning experience, on act breaks, on what makes an X-File, on the argument between Mulder & Scully evolves over an episode, what was the “beautiful idea”.
  • Intense use of index cards to break an episode — used 600 cards for his first episode!
  • Less rewrites by senior staff as time went on.
  • Chris was “running an empire”, he delegated a lot to Frank, and to Vince & John.
  • The young writers would often have to adapt to decisions that were made by the senior staff, like “by the way, Arthur Dales is going to be in Agua Mala”.
  • The scope was big for TV: shooting was 8 days (as with other shows) + 3 days second unit + 1 day inserts.
  • Over the seasons he did more and more work in post-prod, especially s8 editing room, it was a great education. There were a lot of cuts. John had been the main post guy, he sort of took over.
  • He worked a lot on editing Roadrunners, it initially ran 13 min long.
  • In editing: no score at all (no temp track), this gave an honest picture if it worked or not, then it was given to Mark Snow.
  • It was not written in the scripts, but they sort of referenced Terminator 2 in s8.
  • Sink or swim for new writers: he was not necessarily a good fit for TXF but he learned to work on it with a lot of effort.
  • Terms of Endearment: it went through a lot of iterations. Rosemary’s Baby with reversed expectations. The twist was Frank or Chris. Chris did a pass on the script. When filming, the mom of the baby in the demon scene freaked out and took her baby away.
  • Agua Mala: Chris or Vince’s idea to do a bottle episode (for budget reasons) with a sea creature. Chris did a pass on the script. There was a lot of water on the set, impressive.
  • Rush: first episode he really understood how to build a script for TXF, his favourite. Vince did a pass on the script. Fast kids a metaphor for youth/drugs. The Matrix style included in the way they prepared the episode, bullet time ended up being just slow motion. Fox Standards & Practices concerned with grisly deaths.
  • Chimera: Jeckyll & Hyde story. Not his favourite, slow, misses the M&S dynamic (GA was unavailable due to all things). Recurring theme of American suburbs in TXF: was not a conscious theme.
  • Invocation: inspired by Elian Gonzalez story. Frank’s idea that a kid disappears and comes back the same years later, Frank or Chris did a pass on the script. Took reference from creepy kids films like Village of the Damned or The Omen. Chris took a pass on that episode to add in Doggett’s voice. With the new characters, they wanted to build a personal mythology for them.
  • Hellbound: reincarnation, sins returning, to give Reyes character moments. For the slaughterhouse, it turned out it was cheaper to kill pigs than to do fake bodies, that was an unexpected consequence of him writing the script. Easter egg: Manari Meats is a reference to Kim Manners’ real name. Not inspired by Hellraiser. They kept an eye out to revisit Reyes’ spiritual side in scripts.
  • Release: he was working on a story about Doggett and his brother, John was working on a story about Doggett and his kid, they ended up combining them into one. He is fond of this one. He has a DVD of Mark Snow’s score. A supernatural resolution to Doggett’s son’s murder would have been too much, they wanted something that was emotionally satisfying. Unsure about the fan theory that Brad Follmer was involved in the murder.
  • It was very hard to find ideas, he understood why they were cancelled at s9.
  • Revival: it’s tough, you can tell they didn’t have the same schedule & budget as previously.
  • Jeff Bell, Greg Walker, Steven Maeda and him are a tight group, they get together often.
  • Favourites: Home, Bad Blood, Jose Chung, Tunguska/Terma.
  • Why TXF endured: DD & GA casting; Chris & Frank very disciplined, quality control, ambitious, committed people they hired to the vision, the feeling that everything mattered.

https://sammensvaergelsen.libsyn.com/interview-david-amann-writer-producer

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Apr
07
2024

Interview: Tom Braidwood

Laid back discussion between two Vancouver old friends, Tom Braidwood (1st assistant director behind the camera and actor as Frohike) and Stephen Miller (small roles in TXF episodes and in the second movie, and AD McClaren in Millennium).

Bits about nice memories with The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen and getting cast thanks to director Billy Graham at minutes 18-29, plus anecdotes about filming in rainy forests (not sure which episode) and difficulties with Rob Bowman directing Dod Kalm (and in praise of Chris Carter) minutes 37-45.

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Apr
04
2024

TXF reboot rumors update

A summary of recent The X-Files events:

Chris Carter and wife Dori Pierson have some TV mini-series project, completely unrelated to sci-fi/genre; whatever Carter does next, he wants it to be different from TXF. I hope he does manage to do *something*!

Carter went as far as to say that he took the decision to pull the plug on season 12 and end with season 11 (“I needed some time off”), not mentioning the falling ratings or Gillian Anderson’s dissatisfaction (this is rewriting history somewhat, but from another point of view it’s a professional executive producer taking responsibility for his product, keeping the business information only to insiders).

Inevitably, people ask Carter about the rumored TXF reboot to be handled by Ryan Coogler. Contrary to his systematic involvement for the past 30 years, Carter now seems to have distanced himself from TXF, whatever happens now will not be under his supervision. This is an important change compared to even one year ago.

Gillian Anderson has said she would be open to making an appearance on a reboot/sequel/rewhateverthisis, going as far as saying that Coogler is “a bit of a genius” — which in line with what she said she would think about continuing the role of Scully if “a whole new set of writers and the baton would need to be handed on”, making it clear that for her Carter was the issue. Incredible that this feud has become so public.

Meanwhile, Dean Haglund (Langly) appears to have insider information, that the reboot would tackle the topical issue of AI instead of the alien invasion conspiracy. Given that no other information exists out there and that thanks to the AI angle this would allow Langly specifically to have a role, take this with a grain of salt.

For over a year, the only source for the reboot’s existence has been Carter, and now hopeful actors. Zero word from Coogler or Disney or anybody else, which by now is weird — but then most projects never materialize and it’s only media obsessiveness of recent years that has resulted in us hearing of so many details. Coogler’s current plate seems to be very full, with plenty of film and TV projects officially announced left and right. Whatever happens, it doesn’t look as if it will happen any time soon (and I’m not in a hurry).

Links:

  • Inverse: Chris Carter interview
  • Today: Gillian Anderson interview
  • Rumble: Dean Haglund interview

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Mar
08
2024

Interview: Cloke & Morgan on S:AAB

This is rare! Long interview with Kristen “Ace of Diamonds Shane” Cloke and Glen “Semper Fi!” Morgan exculsively on “Space: Above and Beyond“, the single-season sci-fi series which was made in-between The X-Files seasons 2 & 4 (hence Morgan & Wong’s absence), has many Ten Thirteen people in the crew (importantly, director Thomas J Wright), is where Kristen & Glen met, and which is not talked about enough. Following “Space”, Morgan & Wong had many actors appear in TXF (Home, The Field Where I Died, Musings of a CSM, Never Again) and Millennium (Dead Letters, Goodbye Charlie, and of course Lara Means throughout s2). By Yum Yum Podcast

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Feb
23
2024

Interview: Corey Kaplan

A rare interview with Corey Kaplan thanks to The X-Files Preservation Collection / The X-Files Museum! She was The X-Files’ production designer for the Los Angeles years (s6-9), an important member of the production team. I liked what she had to say about how productions today differs from how it was in the past. Some highlights:

It’s all about collaboration. With the dark look of the show, she had to work a lot with the Director of Photography Bill Roe. Unlike most production designers who are usually architects, her background was in art and photography. She lived the transition from shooting with film to shooting with high-definition digital cameras. With those, everything is very vivid, you see too much into the shadows. Between that and the overload of digital special effects, everything looks cartoonish now (like the Marvel shows).

Before TXF, she was doing art films and low budget horror comedy films, so she had some experience in filmmaking. When she got interviewed for TXF, she was doing a skateboard movie (“Brink!”), she brought the skateboard with her, and Carter’s office was filled with surfboards! Carter and company were all wearing casual clothes, sitting on the floor, eating snacks, they matched immediately. Kim Manners was the first person she met. Often mentions working with Bernadette (Bernie) Caulfield (s6-7 producer).

It was a tough job, 7 days a week for 4 years. Many relationships did not survive, including hers.

“The Beginning”: she remembers the script had Gibson swim in the nuclear reactor, shed his skin and become an alien [probably misremembers]. The metal armature of the nuclear power plant that they built for this first episode was huge, it was re-used throughout the 4 seasons (as Mulder’s basement [?], containment centre, control centre [possibly Mount Weather in “The Truth”?], …)

Carter asked her “what’s your dream job?”, she liked a mansion in Lake O(?), Carter wrote “How the Ghosts Stole Christmas” around that, and they had to build that set in 8 days!

She had to cut short her Thanksgiving holidays after reading the script for “Agua Mala” and going back to work to build the sets for flooding.

Also mentions the cow coming through the roof in “The Rain King”, the Hopi ruins in “The Truth”.

She felt included and heard, unlike in modern shows, the art department was contributing actively, not executing orders. In production meetings with the 18 heads of department the assistant director would start with her. “Chris [Carter] writes for what you give him”, he’d tell them to scout LA and find interesting things to use in scripts. She remembers Kim Manners preparing and planning the day’s shots in detail, it’s not done that way anymore.

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