It was just May at the Hero Complex Film Festival when X-Files creator Chris Carter said that, despite the extreme relevance of his beloved paranoia-investigation series today, he was happy to do it when he did.
But, that was without the presence of Mulder and Scully.
Every panelist across the TV Guide’s 20th Anniversary of X-Files board appeared interested in doing at least another X-Files movie, including the likes of Carter, who claimed his precious “[wouldn’t] look all that much different” despite the significant difference in today’s technology (like characters looking into actual books for information, rather than interweb). Even the ever-stunning Gillian Anderson and the what-the-hell-am-I-doing-here David Duchovny would agree.
“‘X-Files’ had any possibility. The show is so flexible and could encompass any ideas. We could do it forever,” riddled the less than apprehensive Duchovny (“Californication”), though so not the bombastic player he depicts on TV. As soon as the “Moody” Mulder himself opened up, however, the panel began to roll — especially when the actor reflected on the “CGI” of the 90s. “We went from acting opposite a tennis ball for hours to someone fully set in costume. He looked like the guy who fucked Mrs. Butterworth.”
Hilarity continued, when Anderson herself referred to the “eternity” it took for the two FBI agents to finally hook up. “I guess I didn’t realize Mulder was so cool until a few years later and I thought ‘Damn. I should have gotten there sooner’.”
Thankfully, the rest of the panel guests were just as sharp. And that’s no surprise, considering these bad boys are still some of the finest writers and producers in TV: Howard Gordon (“24”, “Homeland”), James Wong (“American Horror Story”), Glen & Darin Morgan (Final Destination, “Fringe”), John Shiban (“The Vampire Diaries”), David Amann (“Castle”), and Vince Gilligan (“Breaking Bad”).
Whew.
“There’d be no ‘Breaking Bad’ without ‘X-Files,’ charmed Gilligan. “I was just as lucky as hell to be a part of that.” In addition to meeting his future star Bryan Cranston on “Drive” (and not the awesome Ryan Gosling movie he was later in, as our very own Sister Sherice pointed out), Gilligan also recalled the time he had asked Drew Barrymore to be “X-Files”, for an episode where a kid could wish people into a cornfield (ala “Twilight Zone”). Of course, the agent to the Wedding Singer actress wasn’t having it. “Stop bothering my client, or I’ll put out a restraining order.”
And there was no blaming the “Bad” showrunner for that call, since Dana Scully is considered one of the strongest female characters in the history of television. Anderson’s agent also had a humongous impact at a time where that was far from prevalent, for not only having a strong personality — and “bossing people around” as she put it — but for being a decent human being. “[Scully was] my fantasy woman. Strong. Smart. Resourceful. Tough,” Carter added.
It was also neat to find out as to why the writers decided to weave a religious thread into Scully’s life. The current “Hannibal” actress chimed that being a “scientist was one-dimensional. So, this [religious] upbringing was always tearing at her. It made her beliefs irrational.”
As far as her inspiration for the paranoia, Duchovny had all the answers: “Mulder got into Scully because of science.”
- The controversial “X-Files” Season 4 episode 2, “Home“, to which Fox pulled off the schedule, packed some heavy inspirations: Brother’s Keeper, a documentary that Morgan referred to as a “Good movie. Incestuous.. Didn’t know if they murdered each other.. Good movie”; the book Dark Nature; and Charlie Chaplin’s autobiography. “We’re like the angry otters you see at Seaworld and you really don’t want to like. [So], despite the notion of us being sick creeps, I’m glad we did it.”
- Who was everyone’s favorite “X-Files” villain? There’s no doubt your favorite Monsignor’s was “The Cigarette Smoking Man,” since the “Musings” episode is perhaps one of my favorite TV eps ever. In agreement to that, the sludgy animal control worker “Eugene Victor Toomes”; “Clyde Brockman” (the Peter Boyle character, despite not really being a villain); Cranston’s “Krump”; Tom Noonan’s “Roche”; John Neville’s “Well Manicured Man”; and even Darin Morgan picked himself, having played both “Flukeman” and the squiggly tailed lover “Eddie Van Blundht”.
- Those who can’t wait for the third X-Files movie (since there was no true announcement on Thursday.. ahh the tease!), can follow-up on Mulder & Scully with IDW’s “Season 10“. The comic book series has earned some pretty nice reviews thus far, even from Carter himself. “The X-Files comic is true to the show, but it [definitely] have its own mythology.” Shiban’s son also played Scully’s baby on the show, too, to which Gillian quipped when he was introduced in front of Ballroom 20: “He looks like me. That’s our son.”