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THE X-FILES™: I WANT TO BELIEVE is a new motion picture based on the phenomenally popular, award-winning series The X-Files. Long-anticipated, the film reunites series stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson under the direction of series creator Chris Carter, who co-wrote the screenplay with Frank Spotnitz.
In grand The X-Files tradition, the film’s storyline is being kept under wraps, known only to top studio brass and the project’s principal actors and filmmakers. This much can be revealed: The supernatural thriller is a stand-alone story in the tradition of some of the show’s most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the always-complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions. Mulder continues his unshakable quest for the truth, and Scully, the passionate, ferociously intelligent physician, remains inextricably tied to Mulder’s pursuits.
Months after shooting had wrapped, Carter remained as circumspect about the story as he was during its development and production. “Mulder and Scully are drawn back into the world of the X-Files by a case,” is all he’ll add about the plot.
Perhaps more clues…to something….can be found in the film’s title. “I Want to Believe” is a familiar phrase for fans of the series; it was the slogan on a poster that Mulder had hanging in his office at the FBI. “It’s a natural title,” says Chris Carter. “It’s a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. It really does suggest Mulder’s struggle with his faith.”
Carter is much more revealing about his goals for the film. “Simply put, we want to scare the pants off of everyone in the audience,” he says. While the scale and scope inherent in the medium of film allowed the filmmakers to take the story and characters where the show couldn’t go, Carter says THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE also marks a return to the series’ roots, when it was the a lone beacon on television for fans of thrillers, supernatural tales, and of horror stories. “The film encompasses all the best things people loved about the show. It’s scary, creepy, and has a good mystery. With The X-Files, we often scared people by what they didn’t show, and we use that device for the movie.”
Adds writer-producer Frank Spotnitz: “I think the best part of The X-Files was that it could make you afraid of anything. They didn’t tell typical horror stories or adhere to popular genre conventions. And this movie is in that tradition of showing things that you would not see in most scary movies.”
Unlike the first The X-Files motion picture, released in 1998, Carter and Spotnitz’s story for THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE does not require audiences to understand the series’ complex mythology that stretched across its nine seasons on the air. “The first movie was kind of an epic episode of the show, but THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE is a real, stand-alone movie,” explains Carter. “If the show hadn’t existed, this is a story that still would have found its way to the big screen.”
After ten long years since the first film – and six years since the close of the series – Carter and Spotnitz felt the time was right for a new The X-Files movie, not only to provide the show’s legions of fans with a new case for Mulder and Scully, but to introduce a new generation to these characters already beloved by millions. “It has struck me over the last several years, talking to college-age kids, that many of them really don’t know the show,” says Carter. “A twenty-year-old today would have been too young when the show debuted [16 years ago]. So there’s a whole new audience for The X-Files. And this film was made to satisfy them, as well as our longtime fans.”
“Writing and making this film was far more than an exercise in nostalgia,” adds Frank Spotnitz. “Chris and I took a long, careful and emotional look at Mulder and Scully and where they would be at this point in their lives. We would talk for hours and hours about the story and what it meant to us.”
The two filmmakers decided that the story, and the critical Mulder-Scully dynamic, would take place in what they call “real time” – it’s been six years since we last saw them in the series finale, and the film would reflect that progression. “They’re six years older and six years wiser, and their relationship has evolved quite a bit,” says Carter. “Mulder and Scully have gone through a lot [in that period], so there is much in the movie about the state of their relationship – and its future.”
David Duchovny says that presenting Mulder and Scully as they are today, was a critical decision. “It was important to allow time to go on in the world of The X-Files as it’s gone on in the world at large. I think one of the most interesting things we do as actors is to try and embody the same character as time goes by, working with the changes of life or consciousness that happen to us with time.”
The Mulder-Scully relationship continues to be defined by a unique chemistry – a spark that defies the conventions of screen romances. “The chemistry with David is completely easy,” says Anderson. “It’s something we seem to be able to slip into with our eyes closed. From the second we started working together on this film, it was there.”
On the set of THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE, the electricity between the actors and between their respective characters was impressive even to those who had witnessed it up close for so many years. “The first day of shooting, when I saw David and Gillian working together, I got chills,” says Chris Carter. “David and Gillian have always had that chemistry. Seeing them working together was like having the family back together.”
Beloved by the large subset of fans who call themselves “Shippers” (taking their name from the fourth syllable of the world “relationship”), the Mulder-Scully love story remains a very different kind of screen romance. “It’s always been a chaste kind of relationship,” says Duchovny. “It’s an old-fashioned romance where all the physical intimacy is achieved through looks, or by holding hands, or by kisses on the forehead.
“Mulder and Scully are meant for each other,” the actor continues. “But there’s always an obstacle that threatens their relationship. This movie is very much about that obstacle.”
Chris Carter further explores the characters’ bond: “For me, The X-Files has always been a romance – an intellectual romance of the mind that’s very rare and restrained. It is intimate but not physical. That is a big part of the chemistry. And from the beginning of the show, it was David and Gillian who created our success. Without them, the show would not have worked.”
Actor chemistry notwithstanding, it was somewhat easier for Carter and Spotnitz to return to the world of The X-Files than it was for stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Carter, who guided the show for over 17 years as its creator and executive producer, says simply that coming back to these characters and their universe felt “like the most natural thing in the world.”
Spotnitz elaborates: “When Chris and I sat down to write the film and revisit Mulder and Scully, I was surprised to find that they came right back to me. We had a lot of thoughts about what they’d been doing and where they were in their lives. And it was really nice coming back, because I had missed Mulder and Scully. I had missed hearing their voices.”
However much the filmmakers – and of course, the fans – missed the characters, various issues delayed the start of a new The X-Files movie until late last year. Carter credits David Duchovny as being a key advocate of a new film. “I’d say David was as responsible as anyone for getting this movie made. He campaigned for it. He wanted to do it. David was really the key cheerleader in sustaining our interest in doing another film.”
Indeed, Duchovny had wanted to return to Fox Mulder and The X-Files since the show ended its long run in 2002. “I always felt that The X-Files as a movie franchise had real life in it,” he points out. And having played Mulder for nine years, Duchovny thought he could slip back easily into the character. But when cameras started rolling last winter, Duchovny discovered that finding Mulder was more elusive than he had expected. “I thought I would fall back into Mulder very naturally, but at first playing the character felt a little odd. I didn’t want to make any drastic changes in the way I played Mulder because the character is so well-known. But of course I’m older now – and so is Mulder – so some things had to change.”
Similarly, Gillian Anderson found returning to Dana Scully came not without significant effort. “On the first day of shooting,” she remembers, “I was pretty confident about returning to the role. I am usually terrified when I start a project, but that wasn’t the case with this one.” But the challenges of slipping back into a character Anderson thought she had left behind years before quickly became apparent. “I had a really difficult first couple of days [of shooting the film]. I was having a really hard time finding Scully’s voice, and I think part of that is because since the show ended, I’ve been doing everything in my power to take on roles that were very different from Scully. The work I’ve been doing [since the show ended] has involved creating new characters from scratch.
“For this film,” Anderson continues, “playing Scully was less about always referring to the sсript and more about going back to the history and memory of the character. So getting back into character was much more work than I had anticipated.”
While the Mulder-Scully dynamic was the nexus of much of The X-Files’ run, the franchise has long been recognized for bringing in top-flight actors who have made invaluable contributions to its legacy. THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE is no exception to this tradition. Amanda Peet, who recently starred in the series “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” joins The X-Files universe as ASAC Dakota Whitney. Like everything else connected to the film, details about Whitney have been shrouded in secrecy. “Whitney enlists Mulder’s help with a case,” Peet does reveal. “She is an FBI agent who may – or may not – begin to feel a connection with Mulder.”
Peet says joining The X-Files team had, not surprisingly, its unusual moments. “It felt a bit odd to be a guest in this phenomenon. But it was enjoyable, too, becoming a part of this world that is so well-established. And to watch David and Gillian portray this iconic couple [Mulder and Scully] was extraordinary.
The shoot’s physical rigors were perhaps her greatest challenge. “I should have suspected…something…when, before production began, Chris Carter asked me if I was fit – could I run in the snow? Now, I had given birth eight months earlier, and I hadn’t exactly been running any marathons. But of course I told Chris, ‘Yeah, I’m in shape! And the first four days of filming had me running, running and running – and hoping I would look cool.” (Adds Duchovny: “It’s impossible to look cool running in snow.”)
Joining Peet’s Dakota Whitney as an FBI agent new to The X-Files is famed rapper (and host of MTV’s “Pimp My Ride”)Alvin “Xzibit” Joiner, who portrays Agent Mosley Drummy. In a strange, very X-Files-like coincidence, Carter had listened to a song performed by Xzibit that referenced The X-Files. “It was weird that Chris had heard that song,” admits the rapper/actor. “But he’s that kind of guy, you know; he’s into what he’s into.” (Carter’s intellectual and cultural pursuits extend beyond rap music – he recently had a fellowship studying string theory.)
Xzibit, a longtime fan of the series, says that “being part of the lineage of this great phenomenon is incredible.” As part of this lineage, Xzibit is well-aware that most details about Agent Drummy must remain classified until the film’s release. He’ll admit that Drummy is a “by-the-book kind of agent who is very intense. He doesn’t take no for an answer, and he has no time for Mulder’s strange ideas. Because if Agent Drummy can’t see it, feel it, touch it, or kill it, then he doesn’t believe it.”
A very different kind of character is essayed by noted actor Billy Connolly, whose Father Joseph Crissman is a dark, complex character with a haunted past. “It will be a character to which audiences will react strongly, which is one reason I was drawn to it,” says Connolly. “When Chris Carter told me about Father Joe, I knew I must do the part – and thus horrify my family and friends.
“But the scariest thing for me was learning that Chris had me in mind when he wrote the character!” (Carter is a longtime admirer of Connolly’s work, especially of his performance in the film Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown.)
Filming an X-Files story can be an inherently strange experience – and fodder for Connolly’s brand of off-kilter humor. “When you’re doing an X-Files movie, you’re not going to be singing ‘Kum Ba Yah’ around a campfire,” he notes. “You know that it’s just going to be a weird experience.” Case in point: “While filming in [the snowy Canadian ski resort] Whistler, we were creeping around for days, looking for weird stuff in the middle of the night.” Weird stuff, indeed – much of it in the form of a threat the likes of which, Connolly promises, “you’ve never before experienced in a film.”
Obviously, it’s nearly impossible to discuss THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE without mentioning the secrecy surrounding its story, production and several of its characters. And the filmmakers wouldn’t have it any other way. “To me,” says Carter, “this movie is like a Christmas present. I want it opened on Christmas morning and not before. I don’t want people shaking the box or sneaking a peek under the wrapping.
“I believe that audiences will appreciate and enjoy the moviegoing experience more, if they don’t know the story in advance. So we did everything we could to preserve the surprise.”
To that end, only the director and producers had a copy of the full sсript. The actors were invited to read the sсript, only to see it whisked away as soon as they had finished. Select department heads read the sсript in an enclosed room under video surveillance, after which the sсript was returned to a locked vault. All who read it were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. More than ninety percent of the shooting crew had little information about the story – an obstacle that failed to prevent them from preparing for the day’s work.
In fact, everyone rose to this new professional challenge. “It truly was entertainment,” states production designer Mark Freeborn. “I’ve never done a film before without having a sсript close at hand. If you were one of the anointed, you had one with your name watermarked on it. But even then, I could only refer to it in a secure room with three video monitors trained on me.
“There was a running joke amongst a few of us, when we had a question about something, which went along the lines of, ‘Well, let me check my sсript. Oh, wait a minute, I don’t have one!’”
Cast members received sides (the day’s sсript pages reduced in size) on the days they were shooting, each individually watermarked with the actor’s name. At the end of each shooting day, the sides were collected and then shredded. Actors and their character names were given aliases on call sheets and shooting schedules. Dubious information and questionable images were leaked to the internet, making it difficult for even the most astute fan to discern fact from fiction.
COMING HOME
During pre-production, the filmmakers made the decision to shoot THE X FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE where it all began – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which served as the series’ home base for its first five years. “Vancouver is where we first succeeded,” states Carter. “I think that if there are ten things to credit with the success of The X-Files, then Vancouver ranks near the top of that list.”
“From the beginning,” confirms Spotnitz, “we liked the idea of coming back home to Vancouver. It was a heartbreaker for us, leaving Vancouver after season five. There were a lot of tears shed. And so, revisiting The X-Files gave us a chance to also revisit familiar faces and friends that we had left behind. As Chris and I wrote the movie, we imagined we’d be shooting it in Vancouver and taking advantage of the locations that are in and around the city. The locations were everything we hoped they would be.”
Carter, Spotnitz, Duchovny and Anderson were thrilled to reconnect with many of the original crew from The X-Files (as well as with crews from other Vancouver-based shows from Carter’s Ten Thirteen productions, including Millennium, The Lone Gunmen and Harsh Realm). Those on hand for this “reunion” included Tom Braidwood (first assistant director-second unit – who also played “Lone Gunman” Frohike on The X-Files and on the spin-off “Lone Gunmen” series), John Bartley (second unit director of photography), David Gauthier (special effects coordinator), William Terezakis (special effects makeup effects designer), Mat Beck (visual effects supervisor), Michael Williamson (sound mixer), Shirley Inget (set decorator) and Portia Belmont (sсript supervisor).
Principal photography began last December in Vancouver. Cameras rolled for three months throughout the city and some of its surrounding municipalities. Cast and crew also traveled about 100 miles north, past the famed Whistler Ski Resort (home of the 2010 Winter Olympics) to shoot for three weeks in and around the snow-shrouded community of Pemberton, where temperatures often dropped below 0 degrees Celsius. (One evening, Gillian Anderson was so cold she had trouble moving her lips to deliver her lines.)
In Pemberton, Carter and his team staged some of the movie’s most dramatic exterior scenes and stunt sequences. Here, too, secrecy was the order of the day…and of the night. “One of the hardest nights of shooting, we were filming in a place that was not exactly in the sсript and that was not exactly scripted,” says Carter. “I swear to you, no one – including David [Duchovny] – knew what I was doing. I was just leading people. ‘We’re going to shoot here and we’re going to do this,’ was all I’d say.”
Returning to Vancouver was only one of several ways The X-Files had come full circle. “I think the reason The X-Files series was so successful was that Chris imagined a beautiful universe, perfectly devised,” says Spotnitz. “He created two very powerful characters, perfectly cast, with opposing views of the world – one a believer, the other a skeptic. Mulder and Scully dealt with the limits of what we understand about life and about the universe. It really is an incredibly rich and diverse universe – and an endless source of storytelling I think the voice of this movie is still very clearly the voice that Chris defined in the series’ pilot, sixteen years ago.”
Clearly, a new film based on The X-Files was a long time coming. But Carter thinks the delay worked to the project’s advantage – that the interval between films enhanced the long-standing interest in a new chapter in the franchise. “It certainly helped renew my appetite,” he points out.
And there’s little question that it has peaked the excitement, anticipation and fervor of the legions of “X-Philes” who have long wanted to believe in a new case for Mulder and Scully.
ABOUT THE X-FILES
Created and executive produced by Chris Carter, The X-Files, which premiered on FOX on September 10, 1993, chronicled the lives and adventures of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, two disparate FBI agents assigned to investigate unsolved cases within the Bureau – cases that often involved the paranormal, the supernatural, and the inexplicable.
The X-Files won numerous awards and honors, including a George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting, three Golden Globes for Best Dramatic Series, a Golden Satellite Award for Best Drama Series, Science Fiction and Fantasy Saturn Awards for Outstanding Television Series, and a Parents’ Choice Honor for Best Series. In 1997, Gillian Anderson won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
The X-Files was as much of a phenomenon abroad as it was in the United States. The show’s conspiratorial tone and blend of paranoia, horror and suspense made it the most popular television series in Canada, the highest-rated series on Britain’s BBC2, and one of the biggest sensations ever in Japanese television.
The show’s nine-season run came to an end in 2002. In 1998, Twentieth Century Fox released the first feature film based on the series. The film – produced and written by Carter and co-written by Spotnitz – became a worldwide success, taking in $187 million in theatrical box office.
ABOUT THE CAST
DAVID DUCHOVNY (Fox Mulder) was born and raised in New York City. He attended Princeton University (where he played one season as shooting guard on the school’s basketball team), received his Masters Degree in English Literature from Yale, and was on the road to earning his Ph.D. when he caught the acting bug.
Subsequently, Duchovny emerged to become one of the most highly acclaimed actors in Hollywood. He is currently starring in Showtime’s hit Californication, for which he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. Not only does he star in the show, he also serves as one of the show’s executive producers. Duchovny recently began filming the second season of Californication.
From 1993-2002, Duchovny starred in Fox Television’s monster hit The X Files, which earned him a nomination for an Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series. He was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his highly acclaimed and some say risqué appearances on The Larry Sanders Show. In January 1997, Duchovny won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series. Additionally, he has been nominated for a total of three Golden Globes, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a TV Critic’s Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series. The press and the public agree that Duchovny brings a fierce intellect, a quiet intensity and an acerbic wit to his roles on both the small screen and the silver screen.
Since The X Files debuted, millions and millions of self-proclaimed “X-Philes” spent their Sunday nights wide-eyed in anticipation as their hero, the brilliant and sullen FBI agent Fox Mulder (Duchovny), explored cases deemed unbelievable or unsolvable by the Bureau. Duchovny’s remarkable performance on The X Files earned him the title of “Zeitgeist Icon” by Laura Jacobs in The New Republic and “the first Internet sex symbol with hair” by Maureen Dowd in The New York Times.
Duchovny added the role of director to his already extensive list of accomplishments when he wrote, directed and starred in two critically acclaimed episodes of The X Files, titled “The Unnatural,” which starred Jesse L. Martin, and “Hollywood A.D.,” starring Garry Shandling and Tea Leoni.
Duchovny’s passion for renegade films has brought him critical acclaim for his performances in the feature films Kalifornia, in which he costarred with Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis; the controversial film The Rapture, directed by Michael Tolkin, in which Duchovny starred opposite Mimi Rogers; and Julia Has Two Lovers, in which he turned in a much heralded performance as a telephone hustler. Duchovny played Roland “Rollie” Totheroh, Charlie Chaplin’s longtime confidante and cameraman, in the Sir Richard Attenborough directed Chaplin, with Robert Downey, Jr. in the title role; and starred in the smash hit Beethoven, opposite Charles Grodin, as the evil yuppie determined to take over Grodin’s company.
His recent feature credits include the action-comedy Evolution, opposite Julianne Moore, directed by Ivan Reitman, of Ghostbuster fame, the romantic-comedy Return To Me, opposite Minnie Driver, directed by Bonnie Hunt, The X Files: Fight The Future, directed by Rob Bowman, and the Touchstone film, Playing God, with Timothy Hutton and Angelina Jolie, an action thriller, directed by Andy Wilson (winner of a Cable Ace Award for Cracker). Duchovny appeared in Ben Stiller’s film Zoolander (a hilariously funny unbilled cameo performance).
Still recognized for his role as Dennis/Denise Bryson, the transvestite detective in David Lynch’s breakthrough television series Twin Peaks, Duchovny also spent four seasons as the impassioned narrator of Zalman King’s erotic anthology series Red Shoe Diaries, which began as a feature length telefilm for Showtime.
In 2002, he starred in the Miramax ensemble comedy Full Frontal, for director Steven Soderbergh, co-starring Julia Roberts, George Clooney and David Hyde Pierce. Duchovny has made brief returns to television, first appearing in good friend Bonnie Hunt’s show, Life With Bonnie, in which he guest starred as over-the-top weatherman Johnny Volcano, (for which he was nominated for an Emmy in 2003). Following that, he made a memorable appearance on Sex & the City, as an ex-flame of Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw.
Duchovny made his feature directorial debut in 2005 with House of D, which he also wrote and appeared in. The film, which starred Robin Williams and Anton Yelchin, vividly captured the spirit of youth in all its joy and heartbreak.
He also starred in Trust the Man, a romantic comedy in which he starred with Julianne Moore, and The TV Set, directed by Jake Kasdan. Never one to slow down, he was still active behind the camera directing an episode of the Fox television series Bones starring David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel.
More recently, Duchovny appeared in the feature films Things We Lost in the Fire, opposite Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro; and The Secret, directed by Vincent Perez and produced by Luc Besson.
He is married to actress, Téa Leoni. The couple has one daughter and one son.
GILLIAN ANDERSON (Dana Scully) was born in Chicago, Illinois. When she was two, her parents moved their family to London, England, where Anderson spent the next nine years of her childhood. Eventually they moved back to the United States and settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Anderson began acting in community theatre productions while in high school and then proceeded to study acting in college where she obtained her BFA degree from the prestigious Goodman Theater School at Chicago’s DePaul University. Upon acquiring her degree at age 22, she headed off to New York to pursue an acting career.
She performed in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Alan Ayckborne’s Absent Friends, for which she won a Theatre World Award in 1991. In addition she also appeared in Christopher Hampton’s The Philanthropist, at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, CT. It wasn’t long before she finally decided to relocate to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television.
In September 1993, Anderson auditioned for a Fox pilot called The X-Files, for the role of Dana Scully – a part that would jump-start her career, earning her much approval and worldwide recognition. Over the next nine years, Anderson’s work on the series won her two Screen Actors Guild Awards, one Emmy, one Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series, and numerous nominations. In 1998, she carried her role of Dana Scully over into the motion picture adaptation based on show: The X Files: Fight The Future. In 1999, she made “The X-Files” history by becoming the first woman to write and direct an episode of the series entitled “All Things.”
Anderson’s other feature film credits include the Miramax features, The Mighty, starring Kieran Culkin, as well as 1998’s Playing By Heart, alongside Ellen Burstyn, Sean Connery, Angelina Jolie, and Madeline Stowe among others.
House of Mirth, directed by Terrence Davies, was released in December 2000. The film was listed among the Top 10 films of the year 2000 by critics from Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Newsday, New York Daily News, The Village Voice, and the New York Press. For her portrayal of Lily Bart, she won the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress, and the Best Performance Award from the Village Voice Film Critic’s Poll.
Anderson was able to pick up an Audience Award at the IFTA Awards for her role starring alongside Robert Carlyle in the popular film The Mighty Celt, directed and written by Pearse Elliot. She also had a cameo role in the comedy, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, which gained rave reviews in North America and overseas.
Charles Dickens’ classic was brought back to life on the BBC miniseries Bleak House, where Anderson starred as the cold Lady Dedlock. A critically acclaimed performance by Anderson earned her a nomination for Best Actress at the British Academy of Film and Television Awards in 2006.
She recently finished work on How to Lose Friends & Alienate People opposite Jeff Bridges and Megan Fox, Boogie Woogie for director Duncan Ward, and she was the voice of Queen Vorkana in the animated comedy short Robbie the Reindeer in Close Encounters of the Herd Kind. She will be well remembered for her role as Sarah Merrit in the critically acclaimed The Last King of Scotland, directed by Kevin MacDonald and starring Forest Whitaker. She also appeared in Straightheads for writer/director Dan Reed.
AMANDA PEET (ASAC Dakota Whitney) is an accomplished and versatile film actress who is best known for her diverse choice of roles in romantic comedies, dramas and thrillers. She was recently seen with John Cusack in the New Line Cinema drama The Martian Child, and starred as Jordan McDeere on Aaron Sorkin’s television series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip alongside co-stars Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford. In addition, her voice will be featured in the animated film Terra along with the voices of Luke Wilson, Evan Rachel Wood, and Dennis Quaid.
Upcoming is the independent film Real Men Cry opposite Mark Ruffalo and Ethan Hawke and an as yet untitled Nicole Holofcener dramatic comedy opposite Catherine Keener for Sony Pictures Classics.
In 2006, Peet made her Broadway debut in the revival of Neil Simon’s comedy Barefoot In the Park. She and Patrick Wilson starred as newlyweds in Greenwich Village in the 1960s. Last summer, she starred to critical acclaim, in the Neil LaBute off-Broadway play This Is How It Goes opposite Ben Stiller and Jeffrey Wright.
Her numerous film credits include the Oscar nominated Warner Bros./Section Eight thriller, Syriana, also starring Matt Damon, George Clooney and Chris Cooper. In 2005 Peet starred alongside Ashton Kutcher in A Lot Like Love. Other credits include Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda opposite Will Ferrell; The Whole Nine Yards and its sequel The Whole Ten Yards; the 2003 hit Something’s Gotta Give with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton; and the thriller Identity, with co-stars John Cusack and Ray Liotta. In 2002, Peet was seen in High Crimes alongside Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd, and Changing Lanes opposite Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Affleck and Sydney Pollack. That same year, she appeared as Jeff Goldblum’s mistress, a beautiful and privileged young woman who is hooked on drugs, in Igby Goes Down. Audiences first warmed to Peet when she starred as Jack on the hit drama, Jack and Jill.
A native of New York, Peet graduated from Columbia University with a degree in American History. While there, she also studied acting under Uta Hagen, which ultimately led her to pursue acting as a career.
BILLY CONNOLLY (Father Joseph Crissman), best known to U.S. audiences for his comedic work, gave a moving performance as the loyal servant John Brown in the highly acclaimed Mrs. Brown. A stand-up comedian who has toured the world, Connolly’s recent film credits include Fido, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events, The Last Samurai and Timeline. His previous film credits include Peter Kosminsky’s White Oleander, Troy Duffy’s The Boondock Saints, Stephen Metcalfe’s Beautiful Joe, Barry Levinson’s An Everlasting Piece, Stanley Tucci’s The Impostors, Absolution with Richard Burton, Bullshot And Water with Michael Caine, Crossing The Line with Liam Neeson, the Muppet Treasure Island, Gabriel And Me, Gentleman’s Relish and The Man Who Sued God. He starred in the acclaimed BBC productions Down Among the Big Bad Boys and The Life And Crimes Of Deacon Brodie, and his voice is featured on the animated films Pocahontas and Open Season.
Connolly is most recognizable from the hit television series Head of the Class, which was later spun off into his own series, Billy. His other television work includes appearances on the sitcom Pearl with Rhea Pearlman and Malcolm MacDowell, comedy specials for HBO and BBC; plus Billy Connolly’s World Tour Of Scotland, a six-part series documenting a tour of his beloved homeland; and The Bigger Picture, a series on Scottish art. Connolly has also released numerous home videos, including 25 BC, Billy And Albert, An Audience With Billy Connolly, Billy Connolly Live and Live ‘94.
Connolly’s eclectic career also includes performances in the BBC’s Androcles and the Lion, the Scottish Opera production of Die Fleidermaus, and his own play, The Red Runner, which performed to packed houses at the Edinburgh Festival.
He began his career as a musician, touring with Gerry Rafferty and the folk band The Humblebums. Connolly’s humorous introduction soon became an audience favorite and in 1971 he played his first solo concert. This led to The Great Northern Welly Boot Show, a mixture of music and talk that established his talent as a popular entertainer. He went on to release a double album and a No. 1 hit single, D.I.V.O.R.C.E. Since then, he has released numerous hit comedy records and published several comedic books.
ALVIN “XZIBIT” JOINER (Agent Mosley Drummy) hails from Detroit, moving to Los Angeles via New Mexico, in his teens. He made his name in the rap world at a young age after releasing his buzz album, At the Speed of Life. The album bred the classics Paparazzi and Foundation. His follow up, 40 Dayz and 40 Nightz released the groundbreaking video for What U C is what U Get. His third album, Restless, went platinum off the heels of the success of the Xzibit/Snoop Dogg collaboration B Please and the hit X. Xzibit continued to make his mark in rap history, via his numerous tours with Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, Linkin Park and countless others, as well through two Gold albums Man Vs. Machine and 2004’s Weapons of Mass Destruction, as well as 2006’s critically acclaimed Full Circle.
Taking his rhyming skills to the silver screen, Xzibit appeared in Curtis Hanson’s 8 Mile (Universal Pictures) with fellow rapper and friend Eminem. Showcasing a special talent for the theatrical world, MTV approached X in 2003 with an opportunity that would soon open a new chapter in his career. The worldwide success of his popular MTV show, Pimp My Ride has elevated Xzibit’s celebrity by showcasing his charm and personality through the hosting stint. Pimp My Ride, in its fourth season, is a reality show that turns teens’ junkyard-bound cars into dream cars. The show is now broadcast in over 40 countries and the market continues to grow.
After guest starring on CSI: Miami, X took on his first major role in Lee Tamohori’s 2005 XXX: State of the Union (Revolution/ Columbia Pictures) with Ice Cube and Samuel L. Jackson, playing the role of Zeke, a weapons specialist. He next appeared as Dexter in the 2005 feature Derailed (The Weinstein Co.), starring Jennifer Aniston and Clive Owen, directed by Mikael Håfström. For his first costarring motion picture role, Xzibit signed onto the 2006 Phil Joanou feature, Gridiron Gang (Columbia Pictures) playing Malcom Moore, alongside the Rock. Xzibit then appeared as the voice of Chief Grizzly in the 2006 hit animated film Hoodwinked.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
CHRIS CARTER (Director/Writer/Producer) was described by Time Magazine as a “televisionary” and “seer, who has taken a concept about aliens and the search for the truth and created nothing less than a cultural phenomenon with millions of devoted fans around the world.”
Seen in sixty countries worldwide and the subject of countless internet sites, The X-Files ran a remarkable nine seasons on FOX, received an Emmy and three Golden Globe Awards for best television drama, the Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting and 52 Emmy Award nominations. The impact of Carter’s series is such that in 1997, Time named him one of “The 25 Most Influential People in America.”
As a writer, Carter has been nominated for an Emmy Award and a Writers Guild Award, while as a director he has received an Emmy Award nomination and three Directors Guild nominations. Under his own Ten Thirteen Productions banner, Carter also created and served as executive producer of the FOX series Harsh Realm, Millennium and The Lone Gunmen – shows that continued the exploration of mystery and fear begun in The X-Files.
In the summer of 1998, The X-Files feature film, the first to be based on the series, was released by Twentieth Century Fox and went on to gross more than $185 million worldwide. Carter co-wrote and served as a producer of that film.
Carter was born and raised in the Los Angeles suburb of Bellflower, California, and worked his way through Long Beach State University, graduating in 1979 with a degree in journalism. An avid surfer, as he remains today, Carter began writing for Surfing magazine straight out of college. For the next five years, he traveled around the world both as a free-lance writer and as the magazine’s associate editor, covering the life of surfing.
Carter began writing for Walt Disney Studios in 1985. In 1992 he landed a development deal at Twentieth Century Fox television and began developing and creating his own projects.
He lives in Malibu and Montecito with his wife, Dori
FRANK SPOTNITZ (Writer/ Producer) is an award-winning writer and producer best known for his work on The X-Files television series. He served on The X-Files for eight of its nine seasons, including four years as executive producer and three years as president of Chris Carter's Ten Thirteen Productions. He directed two episodes and wrote or co-wrote more than 40 installments of The X-Files, including the Emmy-nominated "Memento Mori" (with Carter, Vince Gilligan and John Shiban) in 1997.
After The X-Files ended its run in 2002, Spotnitz served as executive producer with Michael Mann on the critically acclaimed CBS crime drama, Robbery Homicide Division.
In 2005, he “re-imagined” the classic Night Stalker franchise for ABC Television, starring Stuart Townsend and Gabrielle Union. Most recently, he served as executive producer of Samurai Girl, a series for ABC Family set to debut in August 2008.
Joining The X-Files as a writer in 1994, Spotnitz quickly became involved not only in developing the series' stand-alone episodes, but its elaborate "mythology" storyline dealing with government conspiracies and aliens.
Other awards accorded to Spotnitz for his work on The X-Files include three Golden Globe wins for Best Dramatic Series, a Peabody Award, and three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series.
He served as co-producer and co-author of the story for the feature film, The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998). His other credits include co-executive producer of Millennium (1997-1999) and executive producer of the Ten Thirteen series Harsh Realm (2000) and The Lone Gunmen (2001). Spotnitz also has long been developing a documentary on the life of Los Angeles novelist John Fante.
Spotnitz began his professional life as a newspaper and magazine writer, working for United Press International, the Associated Press and Entertainment Weekly, among others.
Born in Japan, he received a B.A. in English literature from UCLA and an M.F.A. in screenwriting from the American Film Institute.
BRENT O’CONNOR (Executive Producer) was executive producer on Bulletproof Monk starring Chow Yun-Fat, Seann William Scott, on the family adventure Scooby Doo 2, on We Are Marshall, on the Harrison Ford thriller Firewall, and on the 2005 action thriller Elektra, starring Jennifer Garner. His co-producing credits include K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson.
Early in his career, O’Connor served as an IATSE business agent. He was production manager on a variety of feature films, including the Arnold Schwarzenegger thriller The Sixth Day, the comedic romp Rat Race, starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson; Gus Van Sant’s Academy Award-winning Good Will Hunting, starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams and Ben Affleck; and Seven Years in Tibet, with Brad Pitt. Other credits as production manager include Eye See You, Jumanji, Deep Rising, Disturbing Behavior and Andre.
BILL ROE, ASC (Director of Photography) reunites with Chris Carter, having lensed the feature film The X Files: I Want To Believe, and The X-Files television series when it moved from Vancouver to Los Angeles.
Bill Roe literally grew up in the film industry. His father, Jack Roe, was a first assistant director and later a production manager, who often worked on independent films with the legendary producer/ director Herbert Ross. During his childhood, Roe was a frequent visitor on his father's sets, including a long stint when Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was filmed in Germany. Roe liked hanging out with the grips, but his father told him to forget that as a career path. If he was going to work in the film industry, he was going to be a cameraman.
Roe worked his way up through the ranks of the camera crew system beginning in 1978 as a loader with Owen Roizman, ASC on Sgt. Pepper's Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band. He earned his first credit as a second assistant cameraman on Mr. Mom with Victor Kemper, ASC, who later moved him up to first assistant (Pee-wee's Big Adventure) and operator. Roe also worked on camera crews led by an all-star cast of cinematographers, including Bill Fraker, ASC, Laszlo Kovacs, ASC, Bill Butler, ASC, Michael Chapman, ASC, Adam Greenberg, ASC, Michael Watkins, ASC and TV commercial trailblazer Joe Pytka. He says every cameraman he worked with influenced his approach to cinematography in unique ways.
Watkins elevated Roe to cinematographer when Watkins directed a 1997 telefilm called Detention: The Siege at Johnson High. The next year, when Watkins produced and directed a new TV series called Brooklyn South, he enlisted Roe to shoot it. In 1999, Roe took over cinematography of The X-Files series. Roe lensed some 85 episodes of that series and he earned an unparalleled four consecutive nominations in the annual American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Award competition. Roe won in 1999 for his work on the episode "Drive" and he repeated his success in 2000 for "Agua Mala." He was nominated in 2001 for "Patience" and again in 2002 for "This is Not Happening." Roe was also nominated for Emmy awards in 1999 and 2001 for his work on The X-Files.
MARK FREEBORN (Production Designer) previously collaborated with Chris Carter on season one of The Lone Gunmen, three seasons of the series Millennium, and one season of Harsh Realm, all for Fox Television. He is a student of Fine Arts from Queens University and also studied Architectural Technology at Algonquin College in Ottawa. He has been in the design business since the early seventies.
Among his feature film credits are Trick ‘r Treat, Good Luck Chuck, Black Christmas, Final Destination 3, Willard, See Spot Run, Screwed, Cousins, Immediate Family, Bingo, Love Field, The Yellow Dog, Pittsburgh and Digger (for which he received a Genie nomination).
Films for television include In Cold Blood, A Child Is Missing, Dying To Remember, Shadow of a Stranger, Sexual Advances, Still Not Quite Human, Anything To Survive, The Lady Forgets and the television pilots Dark Angel, Tarzan, Missing Persons and Big Girls Don’t Cry. His series work also includes Bionic Woman, Reunion, Tru Calling , The Marshall and Wolf Lake.
His short film A Feeling Called Glory won a 2000 Leo Award for Best Production Design.
RICHARD A. HARRIS (Editor) is an award-winning editor whose career has spanned over four decades and encompassed every film genre, from political satire and social commentary to comedy, drama, action-adventure and science fiction.
Harris has won an Academy Award, the American Cinema Editors Award and the Golden Satellite Award, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for his work on James Cameron’s blockbuster motion picture Titanic. He earned both Oscar and American Cinema Editors nominations for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Harris also garnered an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Mini-series or Special, as well as an Eddie Award, for the made for television movie Indictment: The McMartin Trial in 1995. He also received an Eddie nomination for the feature film True Lies, in 1994.
Among his many feature film credits are Downhill Racer and The Candidate, The Bodyguard, The Bad News Bears, Smile, Fletch and L.A. Story.
Harris has directed numerous anti-smoking and drug student awareness films for the Conrad Hilton Foundation. He has been a consultant for documentaries by rockers David Crosby and Rob Thomas, served as guest lecturer and instructor at the college level (including his alma mater USC), and sat on panels and as a judge for numerous film festivals including Taos, Reno and Santa Barbara.
In his spare time, he runs a vineyard of award winning, 90-point rated Viognier.
MARK SNOW (Composer) has composed music for over one hundred feature films, television series and telefilms. He has received over a dozen Emmy awards and ASCAP awards. Snow recently became the only American composer nominated for a César Award, the main national film award in France, for Best Music Written for a Film, for Coeurs directed by the legendary French director Alain Resnais. Last year, he became the first composer to receive ASCAP’s prestigious Golden Note Award for significant impact on music culture. Past Golden Note recipients include Elton John, Sean Combs and Stevie Wonder.
Despite a tremendous body of work, it is Snow’s haunting iconic theme for The X-Files which remains a worldwide phenomenon.
His other film and television credits include Starsky & Hutch, Disturbing Behavior, Smallville and Ghost Whisperer. He consistently demonstrates his ability to transcend genre as well as composing with a diverse musical palette which ranges from orchestral to electronic.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Snow began piano studies at age 10. His musical studies continued at Manhattan's High School of Music and Art. He then attended the prestigious Juilliard School of Music under the guidance of several prominent musicians including composer Earle H. Hagen (who composed The Andy Griffith Show theme). While at Juilliard, he and his roommate, Michael Kamen formed The New York Rock and Roll Ensemble. The band’s mix of rock and classical music caught the attention of Atlantic Records and went on to record five albums and tour nationally.
When the band broke up, Snow served a brief stint in record producing. Inspired by the Planet of the Apes score, Snow realized that he wanted to compose music for film and television. Snow and his wife Glynn moved to Los Angeles, and six months later he got his first job, composing music for an episode of Aaron Spelling's series The Rookies, which launched his film and TV career.
Snow’s name is synonymous with the most popular themes in TV history including those for Starsky and Hutch, Hart to Hart, Dynasty, Cagney and Lacey, T. J. Hooker and, of course, The X-Files. His score for the TV movie Something about Amelia earned him his first Emmy nomination. He also shares an Emmy nomination with his wife for The Lost Capone.
In 1993, The X-Files premiered on the Fox network. A year later, the show received two Emmy nominations — outstanding main title design and outstanding main title theme. Snow didn't win but his The X-Files theme became an international phenomenon. Snow may be best known for his electronic work on The X-Files and Millennium but his orchestral scores continue to receive critical-acclaim as well including Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, Children of the Dust and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
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THE X-FILES™: I WANT TO BELIEVE is a new motion picture based on the phenomenally popular, award-winning series The X-Files. Long-anticipated, the film reunites series stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson under the direction of series creator Chris Carter, who co-wrote the screenplay with Frank Spotnitz.
In grand The X-Files tradition, the film’s storyline is being kept under wraps, known only to top studio brass and the project’s principal actors and filmmakers. This much can be revealed: The supernatural thriller is a stand-alone story in the tradition of some of the show’s most acclaimed and beloved episodes, and takes the always-complicated relationship between Fox Mulder (Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson) in unexpected directions. Mulder continues his unshakable quest for the truth, and Scully, the passionate, ferociously intelligent physician, remains inextricably tied to Mulder’s pursuits.
Months after shooting had wrapped, Carter remained as circumspect about the story as he was during its development and production. “Mulder and Scully are drawn back into the world of the X-Files by a case,” is all he’ll add about the plot.
Perhaps more clues…to something….can be found in the film’s title. “I Want to Believe” is a familiar phrase for fans of the series; it was the slogan on a poster that Mulder had hanging in his office at the FBI. “It’s a natural title,” says Chris Carter. “It’s a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. It really does suggest Mulder’s struggle with his faith.”
Carter is much more revealing about his goals for the film. “Simply put, we want to scare the pants off of everyone in the audience,” he says. While the scale and scope inherent in the medium of film allowed the filmmakers to take the story and characters where the show couldn’t go, Carter says THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE also marks a return to the series’ roots, when it was the a lone beacon on television for fans of thrillers, supernatural tales, and of horror stories. “The film encompasses all the best things people loved about the show. It’s scary, creepy, and has a good mystery. With The X-Files, we often scared people by what they didn’t show, and we use that device for the movie.”
Adds writer-producer Frank Spotnitz: “I think the best part of The X-Files was that it could make you afraid of anything. They didn’t tell typical horror stories or adhere to popular genre conventions. And this movie is in that tradition of showing things that you would not see in most scary movies.”
Unlike the first The X-Files motion picture, released in 1998, Carter and Spotnitz’s story for THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE does not require audiences to understand the series’ complex mythology that stretched across its nine seasons on the air. “The first movie was kind of an epic episode of the show, but THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE is a real, stand-alone movie,” explains Carter. “If the show hadn’t existed, this is a story that still would have found its way to the big screen.”
After ten long years since the first film – and six years since the close of the series – Carter and Spotnitz felt the time was right for a new The X-Files movie, not only to provide the show’s legions of fans with a new case for Mulder and Scully, but to introduce a new generation to these characters already beloved by millions. “It has struck me over the last several years, talking to college-age kids, that many of them really don’t know the show,” says Carter. “A twenty-year-old today would have been too young when the show debuted [16 years ago]. So there’s a whole new audience for The X-Files. And this film was made to satisfy them, as well as our longtime fans.”
“Writing and making this film was far more than an exercise in nostalgia,” adds Frank Spotnitz. “Chris and I took a long, careful and emotional look at Mulder and Scully and where they would be at this point in their lives. We would talk for hours and hours about the story and what it meant to us.”
The two filmmakers decided that the story, and the critical Mulder-Scully dynamic, would take place in what they call “real time” – it’s been six years since we last saw them in the series finale, and the film would reflect that progression. “They’re six years older and six years wiser, and their relationship has evolved quite a bit,” says Carter. “Mulder and Scully have gone through a lot [in that period], so there is much in the movie about the state of their relationship – and its future.”
David Duchovny says that presenting Mulder and Scully as they are today, was a critical decision. “It was important to allow time to go on in the world of The X-Files as it’s gone on in the world at large. I think one of the most interesting things we do as actors is to try and embody the same character as time goes by, working with the changes of life or consciousness that happen to us with time.”
The Mulder-Scully relationship continues to be defined by a unique chemistry – a spark that defies the conventions of screen romances. “The chemistry with David is completely easy,” says Anderson. “It’s something we seem to be able to slip into with our eyes closed. From the second we started working together on this film, it was there.”
On the set of THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE, the electricity between the actors and between their respective characters was impressive even to those who had witnessed it up close for so many years. “The first day of shooting, when I saw David and Gillian working together, I got chills,” says Chris Carter. “David and Gillian have always had that chemistry. Seeing them working together was like having the family back together.”
Beloved by the large subset of fans who call themselves “Shippers” (taking their name from the fourth syllable of the world “relationship”), the Mulder-Scully love story remains a very different kind of screen romance. “It’s always been a chaste kind of relationship,” says Duchovny. “It’s an old-fashioned romance where all the physical intimacy is achieved through looks, or by holding hands, or by kisses on the forehead.
“Mulder and Scully are meant for each other,” the actor continues. “But there’s always an obstacle that threatens their relationship. This movie is very much about that obstacle.”
Chris Carter further explores the characters’ bond: “For me, The X-Files has always been a romance – an intellectual romance of the mind that’s very rare and restrained. It is intimate but not physical. That is a big part of the chemistry. And from the beginning of the show, it was David and Gillian who created our success. Without them, the show would not have worked.”
Actor chemistry notwithstanding, it was somewhat easier for Carter and Spotnitz to return to the world of The X-Files than it was for stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson. Carter, who guided the show for over 17 years as its creator and executive producer, says simply that coming back to these characters and their universe felt “like the most natural thing in the world.”
Spotnitz elaborates: “When Chris and I sat down to write the film and revisit Mulder and Scully, I was surprised to find that they came right back to me. We had a lot of thoughts about what they’d been doing and where they were in their lives. And it was really nice coming back, because I had missed Mulder and Scully. I had missed hearing their voices.”
However much the filmmakers – and of course, the fans – missed the characters, various issues delayed the start of a new The X-Files movie until late last year. Carter credits David Duchovny as being a key advocate of a new film. “I’d say David was as responsible as anyone for getting this movie made. He campaigned for it. He wanted to do it. David was really the key cheerleader in sustaining our interest in doing another film.”
Indeed, Duchovny had wanted to return to Fox Mulder and The X-Files since the show ended its long run in 2002. “I always felt that The X-Files as a movie franchise had real life in it,” he points out. And having played Mulder for nine years, Duchovny thought he could slip back easily into the character. But when cameras started rolling last winter, Duchovny discovered that finding Mulder was more elusive than he had expected. “I thought I would fall back into Mulder very naturally, but at first playing the character felt a little odd. I didn’t want to make any drastic changes in the way I played Mulder because the character is so well-known. But of course I’m older now – and so is Mulder – so some things had to change.”
Similarly, Gillian Anderson found returning to Dana Scully came not without significant effort. “On the first day of shooting,” she remembers, “I was pretty confident about returning to the role. I am usually terrified when I start a project, but that wasn’t the case with this one.” But the challenges of slipping back into a character Anderson thought she had left behind years before quickly became apparent. “I had a really difficult first couple of days [of shooting the film]. I was having a really hard time finding Scully’s voice, and I think part of that is because since the show ended, I’ve been doing everything in my power to take on roles that were very different from Scully. The work I’ve been doing [since the show ended] has involved creating new characters from scratch.
“For this film,” Anderson continues, “playing Scully was less about always referring to the sсript and more about going back to the history and memory of the character. So getting back into character was much more work than I had anticipated.”
While the Mulder-Scully dynamic was the nexus of much of The X-Files’ run, the franchise has long been recognized for bringing in top-flight actors who have made invaluable contributions to its legacy. THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE is no exception to this tradition. Amanda Peet, who recently starred in the series “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” joins The X-Files universe as ASAC Dakota Whitney. Like everything else connected to the film, details about Whitney have been shrouded in secrecy. “Whitney enlists Mulder’s help with a case,” Peet does reveal. “She is an FBI agent who may – or may not – begin to feel a connection with Mulder.”
Peet says joining The X-Files team had, not surprisingly, its unusual moments. “It felt a bit odd to be a guest in this phenomenon. But it was enjoyable, too, becoming a part of this world that is so well-established. And to watch David and Gillian portray this iconic couple [Mulder and Scully] was extraordinary.
The shoot’s physical rigors were perhaps her greatest challenge. “I should have suspected…something…when, before production began, Chris Carter asked me if I was fit – could I run in the snow? Now, I had given birth eight months earlier, and I hadn’t exactly been running any marathons. But of course I told Chris, ‘Yeah, I’m in shape! And the first four days of filming had me running, running and running – and hoping I would look cool.” (Adds Duchovny: “It’s impossible to look cool running in snow.”)
Joining Peet’s Dakota Whitney as an FBI agent new to The X-Files is famed rapper (and host of MTV’s “Pimp My Ride”)Alvin “Xzibit” Joiner, who portrays Agent Mosley Drummy. In a strange, very X-Files-like coincidence, Carter had listened to a song performed by Xzibit that referenced The X-Files. “It was weird that Chris had heard that song,” admits the rapper/actor. “But he’s that kind of guy, you know; he’s into what he’s into.” (Carter’s intellectual and cultural pursuits extend beyond rap music – he recently had a fellowship studying string theory.)
Xzibit, a longtime fan of the series, says that “being part of the lineage of this great phenomenon is incredible.” As part of this lineage, Xzibit is well-aware that most details about Agent Drummy must remain classified until the film’s release. He’ll admit that Drummy is a “by-the-book kind of agent who is very intense. He doesn’t take no for an answer, and he has no time for Mulder’s strange ideas. Because if Agent Drummy can’t see it, feel it, touch it, or kill it, then he doesn’t believe it.”
A very different kind of character is essayed by noted actor Billy Connolly, whose Father Joseph Crissman is a dark, complex character with a haunted past. “It will be a character to which audiences will react strongly, which is one reason I was drawn to it,” says Connolly. “When Chris Carter told me about Father Joe, I knew I must do the part – and thus horrify my family and friends.
“But the scariest thing for me was learning that Chris had me in mind when he wrote the character!” (Carter is a longtime admirer of Connolly’s work, especially of his performance in the film Her Majesty, Mrs. Brown.)
Filming an X-Files story can be an inherently strange experience – and fodder for Connolly’s brand of off-kilter humor. “When you’re doing an X-Files movie, you’re not going to be singing ‘Kum Ba Yah’ around a campfire,” he notes. “You know that it’s just going to be a weird experience.” Case in point: “While filming in [the snowy Canadian ski resort] Whistler, we were creeping around for days, looking for weird stuff in the middle of the night.” Weird stuff, indeed – much of it in the form of a threat the likes of which, Connolly promises, “you’ve never before experienced in a film.”
Obviously, it’s nearly impossible to discuss THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE without mentioning the secrecy surrounding its story, production and several of its characters. And the filmmakers wouldn’t have it any other way. “To me,” says Carter, “this movie is like a Christmas present. I want it opened on Christmas morning and not before. I don’t want people shaking the box or sneaking a peek under the wrapping.
“I believe that audiences will appreciate and enjoy the moviegoing experience more, if they don’t know the story in advance. So we did everything we could to preserve the surprise.”
To that end, only the director and producers had a copy of the full sсript. The actors were invited to read the sсript, only to see it whisked away as soon as they had finished. Select department heads read the sсript in an enclosed room under video surveillance, after which the sсript was returned to a locked vault. All who read it were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement. More than ninety percent of the shooting crew had little information about the story – an obstacle that failed to prevent them from preparing for the day’s work.
In fact, everyone rose to this new professional challenge. “It truly was entertainment,” states production designer Mark Freeborn. “I’ve never done a film before without having a sсript close at hand. If you were one of the anointed, you had one with your name watermarked on it. But even then, I could only refer to it in a secure room with three video monitors trained on me.
“There was a running joke amongst a few of us, when we had a question about something, which went along the lines of, ‘Well, let me check my sсript. Oh, wait a minute, I don’t have one!’”
Cast members received sides (the day’s sсript pages reduced in size) on the days they were shooting, each individually watermarked with the actor’s name. At the end of each shooting day, the sides were collected and then shredded. Actors and their character names were given aliases on call sheets and shooting schedules. Dubious information and questionable images were leaked to the internet, making it difficult for even the most astute fan to discern fact from fiction.
COMING HOME
During pre-production, the filmmakers made the decision to shoot THE X FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE where it all began – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, which served as the series’ home base for its first five years. “Vancouver is where we first succeeded,” states Carter. “I think that if there are ten things to credit with the success of The X-Files, then Vancouver ranks near the top of that list.”
“From the beginning,” confirms Spotnitz, “we liked the idea of coming back home to Vancouver. It was a heartbreaker for us, leaving Vancouver after season five. There were a lot of tears shed. And so, revisiting The X-Files gave us a chance to also revisit familiar faces and friends that we had left behind. As Chris and I wrote the movie, we imagined we’d be shooting it in Vancouver and taking advantage of the locations that are in and around the city. The locations were everything we hoped they would be.”
Carter, Spotnitz, Duchovny and Anderson were thrilled to reconnect with many of the original crew from The X-Files (as well as with crews from other Vancouver-based shows from Carter’s Ten Thirteen productions, including Millennium, The Lone Gunmen and Harsh Realm). Those on hand for this “reunion” included Tom Braidwood (first assistant director-second unit – who also played “Lone Gunman” Frohike on The X-Files and on the spin-off “Lone Gunmen” series), John Bartley (second unit director of photography), David Gauthier (special effects coordinator), William Terezakis (special effects makeup effects designer), Mat Beck (visual effects supervisor), Michael Williamson (sound mixer), Shirley Inget (set decorator) and Portia Belmont (sсript supervisor).
Principal photography began last December in Vancouver. Cameras rolled for three months throughout the city and some of its surrounding municipalities. Cast and crew also traveled about 100 miles north, past the famed Whistler Ski Resort (home of the 2010 Winter Olympics) to shoot for three weeks in and around the snow-shrouded community of Pemberton, where temperatures often dropped below 0 degrees Celsius. (One evening, Gillian Anderson was so cold she had trouble moving her lips to deliver her lines.)
In Pemberton, Carter and his team staged some of the movie’s most dramatic exterior scenes and stunt sequences. Here, too, secrecy was the order of the day…and of the night. “One of the hardest nights of shooting, we were filming in a place that was not exactly in the sсript and that was not exactly scripted,” says Carter. “I swear to you, no one – including David [Duchovny] – knew what I was doing. I was just leading people. ‘We’re going to shoot here and we’re going to do this,’ was all I’d say.”
Returning to Vancouver was only one of several ways The X-Files had come full circle. “I think the reason The X-Files series was so successful was that Chris imagined a beautiful universe, perfectly devised,” says Spotnitz. “He created two very powerful characters, perfectly cast, with opposing views of the world – one a believer, the other a skeptic. Mulder and Scully dealt with the limits of what we understand about life and about the universe. It really is an incredibly rich and diverse universe – and an endless source of storytelling I think the voice of this movie is still very clearly the voice that Chris defined in the series’ pilot, sixteen years ago.”
Clearly, a new film based on The X-Files was a long time coming. But Carter thinks the delay worked to the project’s advantage – that the interval between films enhanced the long-standing interest in a new chapter in the franchise. “It certainly helped renew my appetite,” he points out.
And there’s little question that it has peaked the excitement, anticipation and fervor of the legions of “X-Philes” who have long wanted to believe in a new case for Mulder and Scully.
ABOUT THE X-FILES
Created and executive produced by Chris Carter, The X-Files, which premiered on FOX on September 10, 1993, chronicled the lives and adventures of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, two disparate FBI agents assigned to investigate unsolved cases within the Bureau – cases that often involved the paranormal, the supernatural, and the inexplicable.
The X-Files won numerous awards and honors, including a George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting, three Golden Globes for Best Dramatic Series, a Golden Satellite Award for Best Drama Series, Science Fiction and Fantasy Saturn Awards for Outstanding Television Series, and a Parents’ Choice Honor for Best Series. In 1997, Gillian Anderson won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series.
The X-Files was as much of a phenomenon abroad as it was in the United States. The show’s conspiratorial tone and blend of paranoia, horror and suspense made it the most popular television series in Canada, the highest-rated series on Britain’s BBC2, and one of the biggest sensations ever in Japanese television.
The show’s nine-season run came to an end in 2002. In 1998, Twentieth Century Fox released the first feature film based on the series. The film – produced and written by Carter and co-written by Spotnitz – became a worldwide success, taking in $187 million in theatrical box office.
ABOUT THE CAST
DAVID DUCHOVNY (Fox Mulder) was born and raised in New York City. He attended Princeton University (where he played one season as shooting guard on the school’s basketball team), received his Masters Degree in English Literature from Yale, and was on the road to earning his Ph.D. when he caught the acting bug.
Subsequently, Duchovny emerged to become one of the most highly acclaimed actors in Hollywood. He is currently starring in Showtime’s hit Californication, for which he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy Series. Not only does he star in the show, he also serves as one of the show’s executive producers. Duchovny recently began filming the second season of Californication.
From 1993-2002, Duchovny starred in Fox Television’s monster hit The X Files, which earned him a nomination for an Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series. He was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his highly acclaimed and some say risqué appearances on The Larry Sanders Show. In January 1997, Duchovny won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series. Additionally, he has been nominated for a total of three Golden Globes, three Screen Actors Guild Awards and a TV Critic’s Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series. The press and the public agree that Duchovny brings a fierce intellect, a quiet intensity and an acerbic wit to his roles on both the small screen and the silver screen.
Since The X Files debuted, millions and millions of self-proclaimed “X-Philes” spent their Sunday nights wide-eyed in anticipation as their hero, the brilliant and sullen FBI agent Fox Mulder (Duchovny), explored cases deemed unbelievable or unsolvable by the Bureau. Duchovny’s remarkable performance on The X Files earned him the title of “Zeitgeist Icon” by Laura Jacobs in The New Republic and “the first Internet sex symbol with hair” by Maureen Dowd in The New York Times.
Duchovny added the role of director to his already extensive list of accomplishments when he wrote, directed and starred in two critically acclaimed episodes of The X Files, titled “The Unnatural,” which starred Jesse L. Martin, and “Hollywood A.D.,” starring Garry Shandling and Tea Leoni.
Duchovny’s passion for renegade films has brought him critical acclaim for his performances in the feature films Kalifornia, in which he costarred with Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis; the controversial film The Rapture, directed by Michael Tolkin, in which Duchovny starred opposite Mimi Rogers; and Julia Has Two Lovers, in which he turned in a much heralded performance as a telephone hustler. Duchovny played Roland “Rollie” Totheroh, Charlie Chaplin’s longtime confidante and cameraman, in the Sir Richard Attenborough directed Chaplin, with Robert Downey, Jr. in the title role; and starred in the smash hit Beethoven, opposite Charles Grodin, as the evil yuppie determined to take over Grodin’s company.
His recent feature credits include the action-comedy Evolution, opposite Julianne Moore, directed by Ivan Reitman, of Ghostbuster fame, the romantic-comedy Return To Me, opposite Minnie Driver, directed by Bonnie Hunt, The X Files: Fight The Future, directed by Rob Bowman, and the Touchstone film, Playing God, with Timothy Hutton and Angelina Jolie, an action thriller, directed by Andy Wilson (winner of a Cable Ace Award for Cracker). Duchovny appeared in Ben Stiller’s film Zoolander (a hilariously funny unbilled cameo performance).
Still recognized for his role as Dennis/Denise Bryson, the transvestite detective in David Lynch’s breakthrough television series Twin Peaks, Duchovny also spent four seasons as the impassioned narrator of Zalman King’s erotic anthology series Red Shoe Diaries, which began as a feature length telefilm for Showtime.
In 2002, he starred in the Miramax ensemble comedy Full Frontal, for director Steven Soderbergh, co-starring Julia Roberts, George Clooney and David Hyde Pierce. Duchovny has made brief returns to television, first appearing in good friend Bonnie Hunt’s show, Life With Bonnie, in which he guest starred as over-the-top weatherman Johnny Volcano, (for which he was nominated for an Emmy in 2003). Following that, he made a memorable appearance on Sex & the City, as an ex-flame of Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw.
Duchovny made his feature directorial debut in 2005 with House of D, which he also wrote and appeared in. The film, which starred Robin Williams and Anton Yelchin, vividly captured the spirit of youth in all its joy and heartbreak.
He also starred in Trust the Man, a romantic comedy in which he starred with Julianne Moore, and The TV Set, directed by Jake Kasdan. Never one to slow down, he was still active behind the camera directing an episode of the Fox television series Bones starring David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel.
More recently, Duchovny appeared in the feature films Things We Lost in the Fire, opposite Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro; and The Secret, directed by Vincent Perez and produced by Luc Besson.
He is married to actress, Téa Leoni. The couple has one daughter and one son.
GILLIAN ANDERSON (Dana Scully) was born in Chicago, Illinois. When she was two, her parents moved their family to London, England, where Anderson spent the next nine years of her childhood. Eventually they moved back to the United States and settled in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Anderson began acting in community theatre productions while in high school and then proceeded to study acting in college where she obtained her BFA degree from the prestigious Goodman Theater School at Chicago’s DePaul University. Upon acquiring her degree at age 22, she headed off to New York to pursue an acting career.
She performed in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of Alan Ayckborne’s Absent Friends, for which she won a Theatre World Award in 1991. In addition she also appeared in Christopher Hampton’s The Philanthropist, at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, CT. It wasn’t long before she finally decided to relocate to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film and television.
In September 1993, Anderson auditioned for a Fox pilot called The X-Files, for the role of Dana Scully – a part that would jump-start her career, earning her much approval and worldwide recognition. Over the next nine years, Anderson’s work on the series won her two Screen Actors Guild Awards, one Emmy, one Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series, and numerous nominations. In 1998, she carried her role of Dana Scully over into the motion picture adaptation based on show: The X Files: Fight The Future. In 1999, she made “The X-Files” history by becoming the first woman to write and direct an episode of the series entitled “All Things.”
Anderson’s other feature film credits include the Miramax features, The Mighty, starring Kieran Culkin, as well as 1998’s Playing By Heart, alongside Ellen Burstyn, Sean Connery, Angelina Jolie, and Madeline Stowe among others.
House of Mirth, directed by Terrence Davies, was released in December 2000. The film was listed among the Top 10 films of the year 2000 by critics from Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Newsday, New York Daily News, The Village Voice, and the New York Press. For her portrayal of Lily Bart, she won the British Independent Film Award for Best Actress, and the Best Performance Award from the Village Voice Film Critic’s Poll.
Anderson was able to pick up an Audience Award at the IFTA Awards for her role starring alongside Robert Carlyle in the popular film The Mighty Celt, directed and written by Pearse Elliot. She also had a cameo role in the comedy, Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, which gained rave reviews in North America and overseas.
Charles Dickens’ classic was brought back to life on the BBC miniseries Bleak House, where Anderson starred as the cold Lady Dedlock. A critically acclaimed performance by Anderson earned her a nomination for Best Actress at the British Academy of Film and Television Awards in 2006.
She recently finished work on How to Lose Friends & Alienate People opposite Jeff Bridges and Megan Fox, Boogie Woogie for director Duncan Ward, and she was the voice of Queen Vorkana in the animated comedy short Robbie the Reindeer in Close Encounters of the Herd Kind. She will be well remembered for her role as Sarah Merrit in the critically acclaimed The Last King of Scotland, directed by Kevin MacDonald and starring Forest Whitaker. She also appeared in Straightheads for writer/director Dan Reed.
AMANDA PEET (ASAC Dakota Whitney) is an accomplished and versatile film actress who is best known for her diverse choice of roles in romantic comedies, dramas and thrillers. She was recently seen with John Cusack in the New Line Cinema drama The Martian Child, and starred as Jordan McDeere on Aaron Sorkin’s television series Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip alongside co-stars Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford. In addition, her voice will be featured in the animated film Terra along with the voices of Luke Wilson, Evan Rachel Wood, and Dennis Quaid.
Upcoming is the independent film Real Men Cry opposite Mark Ruffalo and Ethan Hawke and an as yet untitled Nicole Holofcener dramatic comedy opposite Catherine Keener for Sony Pictures Classics.
In 2006, Peet made her Broadway debut in the revival of Neil Simon’s comedy Barefoot In the Park. She and Patrick Wilson starred as newlyweds in Greenwich Village in the 1960s. Last summer, she starred to critical acclaim, in the Neil LaBute off-Broadway play This Is How It Goes opposite Ben Stiller and Jeffrey Wright.
Her numerous film credits include the Oscar nominated Warner Bros./Section Eight thriller, Syriana, also starring Matt Damon, George Clooney and Chris Cooper. In 2005 Peet starred alongside Ashton Kutcher in A Lot Like Love. Other credits include Woody Allen’s Melinda and Melinda opposite Will Ferrell; The Whole Nine Yards and its sequel The Whole Ten Yards; the 2003 hit Something’s Gotta Give with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton; and the thriller Identity, with co-stars John Cusack and Ray Liotta. In 2002, Peet was seen in High Crimes alongside Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd, and Changing Lanes opposite Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Affleck and Sydney Pollack. That same year, she appeared as Jeff Goldblum’s mistress, a beautiful and privileged young woman who is hooked on drugs, in Igby Goes Down. Audiences first warmed to Peet when she starred as Jack on the hit drama, Jack and Jill.
A native of New York, Peet graduated from Columbia University with a degree in American History. While there, she also studied acting under Uta Hagen, which ultimately led her to pursue acting as a career.
BILLY CONNOLLY (Father Joseph Crissman), best known to U.S. audiences for his comedic work, gave a moving performance as the loyal servant John Brown in the highly acclaimed Mrs. Brown. A stand-up comedian who has toured the world, Connolly’s recent film credits include Fido, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events, The Last Samurai and Timeline. His previous film credits include Peter Kosminsky’s White Oleander, Troy Duffy’s The Boondock Saints, Stephen Metcalfe’s Beautiful Joe, Barry Levinson’s An Everlasting Piece, Stanley Tucci’s The Impostors, Absolution with Richard Burton, Bullshot And Water with Michael Caine, Crossing The Line with Liam Neeson, the Muppet Treasure Island, Gabriel And Me, Gentleman’s Relish and The Man Who Sued God. He starred in the acclaimed BBC productions Down Among the Big Bad Boys and The Life And Crimes Of Deacon Brodie, and his voice is featured on the animated films Pocahontas and Open Season.
Connolly is most recognizable from the hit television series Head of the Class, which was later spun off into his own series, Billy. His other television work includes appearances on the sitcom Pearl with Rhea Pearlman and Malcolm MacDowell, comedy specials for HBO and BBC; plus Billy Connolly’s World Tour Of Scotland, a six-part series documenting a tour of his beloved homeland; and The Bigger Picture, a series on Scottish art. Connolly has also released numerous home videos, including 25 BC, Billy And Albert, An Audience With Billy Connolly, Billy Connolly Live and Live ‘94.
Connolly’s eclectic career also includes performances in the BBC’s Androcles and the Lion, the Scottish Opera production of Die Fleidermaus, and his own play, The Red Runner, which performed to packed houses at the Edinburgh Festival.
He began his career as a musician, touring with Gerry Rafferty and the folk band The Humblebums. Connolly’s humorous introduction soon became an audience favorite and in 1971 he played his first solo concert. This led to The Great Northern Welly Boot Show, a mixture of music and talk that established his talent as a popular entertainer. He went on to release a double album and a No. 1 hit single, D.I.V.O.R.C.E. Since then, he has released numerous hit comedy records and published several comedic books.
ALVIN “XZIBIT” JOINER (Agent Mosley Drummy) hails from Detroit, moving to Los Angeles via New Mexico, in his teens. He made his name in the rap world at a young age after releasing his buzz album, At the Speed of Life. The album bred the classics Paparazzi and Foundation. His follow up, 40 Dayz and 40 Nightz released the groundbreaking video for What U C is what U Get. His third album, Restless, went platinum off the heels of the success of the Xzibit/Snoop Dogg collaboration B Please and the hit X. Xzibit continued to make his mark in rap history, via his numerous tours with Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, Linkin Park and countless others, as well through two Gold albums Man Vs. Machine and 2004’s Weapons of Mass Destruction, as well as 2006’s critically acclaimed Full Circle.
Taking his rhyming skills to the silver screen, Xzibit appeared in Curtis Hanson’s 8 Mile (Universal Pictures) with fellow rapper and friend Eminem. Showcasing a special talent for the theatrical world, MTV approached X in 2003 with an opportunity that would soon open a new chapter in his career. The worldwide success of his popular MTV show, Pimp My Ride has elevated Xzibit’s celebrity by showcasing his charm and personality through the hosting stint. Pimp My Ride, in its fourth season, is a reality show that turns teens’ junkyard-bound cars into dream cars. The show is now broadcast in over 40 countries and the market continues to grow.
After guest starring on CSI: Miami, X took on his first major role in Lee Tamohori’s 2005 XXX: State of the Union (Revolution/ Columbia Pictures) with Ice Cube and Samuel L. Jackson, playing the role of Zeke, a weapons specialist. He next appeared as Dexter in the 2005 feature Derailed (The Weinstein Co.), starring Jennifer Aniston and Clive Owen, directed by Mikael Håfström. For his first costarring motion picture role, Xzibit signed onto the 2006 Phil Joanou feature, Gridiron Gang (Columbia Pictures) playing Malcom Moore, alongside the Rock. Xzibit then appeared as the voice of Chief Grizzly in the 2006 hit animated film Hoodwinked.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
CHRIS CARTER (Director/Writer/Producer) was described by Time Magazine as a “televisionary” and “seer, who has taken a concept about aliens and the search for the truth and created nothing less than a cultural phenomenon with millions of devoted fans around the world.”
Seen in sixty countries worldwide and the subject of countless internet sites, The X-Files ran a remarkable nine seasons on FOX, received an Emmy and three Golden Globe Awards for best television drama, the Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting and 52 Emmy Award nominations. The impact of Carter’s series is such that in 1997, Time named him one of “The 25 Most Influential People in America.”
As a writer, Carter has been nominated for an Emmy Award and a Writers Guild Award, while as a director he has received an Emmy Award nomination and three Directors Guild nominations. Under his own Ten Thirteen Productions banner, Carter also created and served as executive producer of the FOX series Harsh Realm, Millennium and The Lone Gunmen – shows that continued the exploration of mystery and fear begun in The X-Files.
In the summer of 1998, The X-Files feature film, the first to be based on the series, was released by Twentieth Century Fox and went on to gross more than $185 million worldwide. Carter co-wrote and served as a producer of that film.
Carter was born and raised in the Los Angeles suburb of Bellflower, California, and worked his way through Long Beach State University, graduating in 1979 with a degree in journalism. An avid surfer, as he remains today, Carter began writing for Surfing magazine straight out of college. For the next five years, he traveled around the world both as a free-lance writer and as the magazine’s associate editor, covering the life of surfing.
Carter began writing for Walt Disney Studios in 1985. In 1992 he landed a development deal at Twentieth Century Fox television and began developing and creating his own projects.
He lives in Malibu and Montecito with his wife, Dori
FRANK SPOTNITZ (Writer/ Producer) is an award-winning writer and producer best known for his work on The X-Files television series. He served on The X-Files for eight of its nine seasons, including four years as executive producer and three years as president of Chris Carter's Ten Thirteen Productions. He directed two episodes and wrote or co-wrote more than 40 installments of The X-Files, including the Emmy-nominated "Memento Mori" (with Carter, Vince Gilligan and John Shiban) in 1997.
After The X-Files ended its run in 2002, Spotnitz served as executive producer with Michael Mann on the critically acclaimed CBS crime drama, Robbery Homicide Division.
In 2005, he “re-imagined” the classic Night Stalker franchise for ABC Television, starring Stuart Townsend and Gabrielle Union. Most recently, he served as executive producer of Samurai Girl, a series for ABC Family set to debut in August 2008.
Joining The X-Files as a writer in 1994, Spotnitz quickly became involved not only in developing the series' stand-alone episodes, but its elaborate "mythology" storyline dealing with government conspiracies and aliens.
Other awards accorded to Spotnitz for his work on The X-Files include three Golden Globe wins for Best Dramatic Series, a Peabody Award, and three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series.
He served as co-producer and co-author of the story for the feature film, The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998). His other credits include co-executive producer of Millennium (1997-1999) and executive producer of the Ten Thirteen series Harsh Realm (2000) and The Lone Gunmen (2001). Spotnitz also has long been developing a documentary on the life of Los Angeles novelist John Fante.
Spotnitz began his professional life as a newspaper and magazine writer, working for United Press International, the Associated Press and Entertainment Weekly, among others.
Born in Japan, he received a B.A. in English literature from UCLA and an M.F.A. in screenwriting from the American Film Institute.
BRENT O’CONNOR (Executive Producer) was executive producer on Bulletproof Monk starring Chow Yun-Fat, Seann William Scott, on the family adventure Scooby Doo 2, on We Are Marshall, on the Harrison Ford thriller Firewall, and on the 2005 action thriller Elektra, starring Jennifer Garner. His co-producing credits include K-19: The Widowmaker, starring Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson.
Early in his career, O’Connor served as an IATSE business agent. He was production manager on a variety of feature films, including the Arnold Schwarzenegger thriller The Sixth Day, the comedic romp Rat Race, starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, John Cleese and Rowan Atkinson; Gus Van Sant’s Academy Award-winning Good Will Hunting, starring Matt Damon, Robin Williams and Ben Affleck; and Seven Years in Tibet, with Brad Pitt. Other credits as production manager include Eye See You, Jumanji, Deep Rising, Disturbing Behavior and Andre.
BILL ROE, ASC (Director of Photography) reunites with Chris Carter, having lensed the feature film The X Files: I Want To Believe, and The X-Files television series when it moved from Vancouver to Los Angeles.
Bill Roe literally grew up in the film industry. His father, Jack Roe, was a first assistant director and later a production manager, who often worked on independent films with the legendary producer/ director Herbert Ross. During his childhood, Roe was a frequent visitor on his father's sets, including a long stint when Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was filmed in Germany. Roe liked hanging out with the grips, but his father told him to forget that as a career path. If he was going to work in the film industry, he was going to be a cameraman.
Roe worked his way up through the ranks of the camera crew system beginning in 1978 as a loader with Owen Roizman, ASC on Sgt. Pepper's Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band. He earned his first credit as a second assistant cameraman on Mr. Mom with Victor Kemper, ASC, who later moved him up to first assistant (Pee-wee's Big Adventure) and operator. Roe also worked on camera crews led by an all-star cast of cinematographers, including Bill Fraker, ASC, Laszlo Kovacs, ASC, Bill Butler, ASC, Michael Chapman, ASC, Adam Greenberg, ASC, Michael Watkins, ASC and TV commercial trailblazer Joe Pytka. He says every cameraman he worked with influenced his approach to cinematography in unique ways.
Watkins elevated Roe to cinematographer when Watkins directed a 1997 telefilm called Detention: The Siege at Johnson High. The next year, when Watkins produced and directed a new TV series called Brooklyn South, he enlisted Roe to shoot it. In 1999, Roe took over cinematography of The X-Files series. Roe lensed some 85 episodes of that series and he earned an unparalleled four consecutive nominations in the annual American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Award competition. Roe won in 1999 for his work on the episode "Drive" and he repeated his success in 2000 for "Agua Mala." He was nominated in 2001 for "Patience" and again in 2002 for "This is Not Happening." Roe was also nominated for Emmy awards in 1999 and 2001 for his work on The X-Files.
MARK FREEBORN (Production Designer) previously collaborated with Chris Carter on season one of The Lone Gunmen, three seasons of the series Millennium, and one season of Harsh Realm, all for Fox Television. He is a student of Fine Arts from Queens University and also studied Architectural Technology at Algonquin College in Ottawa. He has been in the design business since the early seventies.
Among his feature film credits are Trick ‘r Treat, Good Luck Chuck, Black Christmas, Final Destination 3, Willard, See Spot Run, Screwed, Cousins, Immediate Family, Bingo, Love Field, The Yellow Dog, Pittsburgh and Digger (for which he received a Genie nomination).
Films for television include In Cold Blood, A Child Is Missing, Dying To Remember, Shadow of a Stranger, Sexual Advances, Still Not Quite Human, Anything To Survive, The Lady Forgets and the television pilots Dark Angel, Tarzan, Missing Persons and Big Girls Don’t Cry. His series work also includes Bionic Woman, Reunion, Tru Calling , The Marshall and Wolf Lake.
His short film A Feeling Called Glory won a 2000 Leo Award for Best Production Design.
RICHARD A. HARRIS (Editor) is an award-winning editor whose career has spanned over four decades and encompassed every film genre, from political satire and social commentary to comedy, drama, action-adventure and science fiction.
Harris has won an Academy Award, the American Cinema Editors Award and the Golden Satellite Award, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for his work on James Cameron’s blockbuster motion picture Titanic. He earned both Oscar and American Cinema Editors nominations for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Harris also garnered an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Mini-series or Special, as well as an Eddie Award, for the made for television movie Indictment: The McMartin Trial in 1995. He also received an Eddie nomination for the feature film True Lies, in 1994.
Among his many feature film credits are Downhill Racer and The Candidate, The Bodyguard, The Bad News Bears, Smile, Fletch and L.A. Story.
Harris has directed numerous anti-smoking and drug student awareness films for the Conrad Hilton Foundation. He has been a consultant for documentaries by rockers David Crosby and Rob Thomas, served as guest lecturer and instructor at the college level (including his alma mater USC), and sat on panels and as a judge for numerous film festivals including Taos, Reno and Santa Barbara.
In his spare time, he runs a vineyard of award winning, 90-point rated Viognier.
MARK SNOW (Composer) has composed music for over one hundred feature films, television series and telefilms. He has received over a dozen Emmy awards and ASCAP awards. Snow recently became the only American composer nominated for a César Award, the main national film award in France, for Best Music Written for a Film, for Coeurs directed by the legendary French director Alain Resnais. Last year, he became the first composer to receive ASCAP’s prestigious Golden Note Award for significant impact on music culture. Past Golden Note recipients include Elton John, Sean Combs and Stevie Wonder.
Despite a tremendous body of work, it is Snow’s haunting iconic theme for The X-Files which remains a worldwide phenomenon.
His other film and television credits include Starsky & Hutch, Disturbing Behavior, Smallville and Ghost Whisperer. He consistently demonstrates his ability to transcend genre as well as composing with a diverse musical palette which ranges from orchestral to electronic.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Snow began piano studies at age 10. His musical studies continued at Manhattan's High School of Music and Art. He then attended the prestigious Juilliard School of Music under the guidance of several prominent musicians including composer Earle H. Hagen (who composed The Andy Griffith Show theme). While at Juilliard, he and his roommate, Michael Kamen formed The New York Rock and Roll Ensemble. The band’s mix of rock and classical music caught the attention of Atlantic Records and went on to record five albums and tour nationally.
When the band broke up, Snow served a brief stint in record producing. Inspired by the Planet of the Apes score, Snow realized that he wanted to compose music for film and television. Snow and his wife Glynn moved to Los Angeles, and six months later he got his first job, composing music for an episode of Aaron Spelling's series The Rookies, which launched his film and TV career.
Snow’s name is synonymous with the most popular themes in TV history including those for Starsky and Hutch, Hart to Hart, Dynasty, Cagney and Lacey, T. J. Hooker and, of course, The X-Files. His score for the TV movie Something about Amelia earned him his first Emmy nomination. He also shares an Emmy nomination with his wife for The Lost Capone.
In 1993, The X-Files premiered on the Fox network. A year later, the show received two Emmy nominations — outstanding main title design and outstanding main title theme. Snow didn't win but his The X-Files theme became an international phenomenon. Snow may be best known for his electronic work on The X-Files and Millennium but his orchestral scores continue to receive critical-acclaim as well including Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, Children of the Dust and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
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