The X-Files: I Want To Believe | |
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Directed by | Chris Carter |
Produced by | Chris Carter Frank Spotnitz |
Written by | Frank Spotnitz Chris Carter |
Starring | David Duchovny Gillian Anderson Billy Connolly Amanda Peet Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner Mitch Pileggi |
Music by | Mark Snow |
Cinematography | Bill Roe |
Editing by | Richard A. Harris |
Studio | Ten Thirteen Productions Dune Entertainment III Crying Box Productions |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date(s) | July 25, 2008 (US and Canada) August 1, 2008 (United Kingdom) November 7, 2008 (Japan) |
Running time | 104 minutes |
Country | Canada United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $30,000,000[1] |
Gross revenue | $68,369,434 (Worldwide)[2] $15,822,864 (US DVD/Blu-ray Sales)[3] |
Preceded by | The X-Files |
The X-Files: I Want to Believe is a 2008 science fiction-thriller directed by Chris Carter and written by both Carter and Frank Spotnitz. It is the second feature film based on The X-Files franchise created by Carter, following the 1998 film. Three main characters from the television series; David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson and Mitch Pileggi, reappear in the film to reprise their respective roles as Fox Mulder, Dana Scully and Walter Skinner.
Unlike the first film, the plot does not focus on the series' ongoing extraterrestrial based mytharc themes, but instead works as a standalone thriller horror story, similar to many of the Monster-of-the-Week episodes that were frequently seen in the TV series. The story follows Mulder and Scully who have been out of the FBI for several years; with Mulder living in isolation as a fugitive from the organization and Scully having become a doctor at a Catholic-run hospital, where she has formed a friendly relationship with a seriously ill patient. But when an FBI agent is mysteriously kidnapped, and a former priest who has been convicted of being a paedophile claims to be experiencing psychic visions of the endangered agent, Mulder and Scully reluctantly accept the FBI's request for their particular paranormal expertise on the case.
The film was first anticipated in November 2001 to follow the conclusion of the ninth season of the television series, but it remained in development hell for six years before entering production in December 2007 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The film was released in Australia and Germany on July 24, 2008; in North America on July 25, 2008; in Israel and Kuwait on July 31, 2008; in the United Kingdom on August 1, 2008; in Hong Kong on August 4, 2008; and in Japan on November 7, 2008. The world premiere took place on July 23, 2008, at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The U.K. premiere was held on July 30, 2008, in London's Empire, Leicester Square. Since its release, the film has gathered mixed to negative reviews by critics and viewers alike.
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Six years after the events of The X-Files series finale, former FBI agent Doctor Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is now a staff physician at Our Lady of Sorrows, a Catholic hospital; treating a young boy named Christian who has Sandhoff disease, a terminal brain condition. FBI agent Mosely Drummy (Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner) arrives to ask Scully's help in locating Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), the fugitive former head of the X-Files division. Agent Drummy states that the FBI will call off its manhunt for him if he will help investigate the disappearances of several women, including young FBI agent Monica Bannan (Xantha Radley). Scully agrees and convinces a bearded Mulder, who is living in a nearby small home and clipping newspaper articles about the paranormal, to help.
The duo is taken to Washington, D.C., where Agent Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) wants Mulder's expertise with the paranormal as they have been led to a clue by Father Joseph "Joe" Fitzgerald Crissman (Billy Connolly); a priest defrocked for pedophilia who claims God is sending him visions of the crimes. Whitney and Drummy take Father Joe and Mulder to the kidnapped Bannan's home, where the former priest overcomes the others skepticism when in anguish and on his knees in pain, begins to bleed from his eyes. A second woman, driving home after swimming in a natatorium, is run off the road by Janke Dacyshyn (Callum Keith Rennie), a snowplow driver who then wrecks her car and abducts her. Father Joe is again recruited for help with the second abducted woman. After a grueling nighttime search in a snow covered field, he leads the FBI to what turns out to be a frozen burial ground of people and body parts. Analysis of the remains eventually leads them to Dacyshyn, an organ transporter in Richmond, Virginia, and his husband, Franz Tomczeszyn (Fagin Woodcock) who was among the youths Father Joe sexually abused.
Later, Scully goes to Father Joe's apartment to confront him about his religious visions. To her despair, he says he knows nothing more about those visions than what he had told the FBI, and then collapses suffering a seizure, as we are shown at the same moment Tomczeszyn begins to suffer a seizure too. Scully calls for an ambulance, and later learns that Father Joe, who is admitted to Our Lady of Sorrows, suffers from advanced lung cancer.
During an FBI raid on the organ donor facility where Dacyshyn works, he ends up escaping, leaving Bannan's severed head at the scene. Mulder, who accompanied Whitney on the raid, chases Dacyshyn to a building construction site. Whitney follows, and is killed when Dacyshyn pushes her down an elevator shaft.
Scully, seeking a resolution, asks Joe if Bannan is still alive as he replies she is. Deciding to investigate the incidents further, Mulder drives Scully's car to Nutter's Feed Store in a small town near the abductions. He learns Dacyshyn has purchased an animal tranquilizer. When Dacyshyn coincidentally arrives moments later, Mulder slips out and then follows him to a small compound. Mulder enters, and the commotion caused by a two-headed guard dog's attack brings Dacyshyn out from one of the buildings; a hideout for a makeshift east-European medical team led by Tomczeszyn that has been murdering people and stealing their organs for years. The field where Father Joe had earlier discovered the bodies, turned out to be their dumping ground. Mulder enters the building to find that the team is attempting to place Tomczeszyn's head on the body of the second abducted woman. Mulder tries to save her, but a doctor comes from behind and injects him with acepromazine. Helpless, Mulder is taken outside to be murdered by Dacyshyn.
When Scully cannot reach Mulder on his cell phone, she calls her old FBI superior, Walter Skinner (Mitch Pileggi), for help. They triangulate the phone's location and find Scully's abandoned car, eventually making their way through the snow to find a rural mailbox whose address, 25-2, corresponds to a Biblical chapter and verse, Proverbs 25:2, from which Father Joe had quoted to Scully through a vision. They race to the address where Skinner breaks up the medical procedure before the young woman is beheaded. Mulder is about to be axed by Dacyshyn, but Scully attacks him in an ensuing confrontation, incapacitating him. Later, Mulder is at home when Scully tells him Father Joe has died. It happened at the same moment, Mulder notes, that Scully disconnected Tomczeszyn's severed head. Somehow, he surmises, the two men's fates were linked by more than just visions. Scully remains troubled by Father Joe's advice, "Don't give up", and expresses doubts about Christian's surgery, due to the words of a pedophile priest. When the moment of surgery comes however, Scully pauses a moment, turns and sees three nuns and then forges ahead with the risky procedure. In a post-credits scene, Mulder and Scully are seen rowing towards a tropical island.
In November 2001, the creators of the TV series The X-Files decided to pursue a second feature film adaptation of the series, following the 1998 film. Carter was expected to collaborate with Spotnitz, who had co-written the first film, on a script for the follow-up. Production of the film was slated to begin after the completion of the ninth season of the TV series, with a projected release in December 2003.[4] In April 2002, Carter reiterated his desire and the studio's desire to do a sequel film. He planned to write the script over that summer and begin production in the spring or summer of 2003 for a 2004 release.[5] Carter described the film saying, "We're looking at the movies as stand-alones. They're not necessarily going to have to deal with the mythology."[6] Director Rob Bowman, who had directed episodes of The X-Files in the past as well as the 1998 film, expressed an interest in filming the sequel in July 2002.[7]
In April 2004, Duchovny said he was waiting for the film's production to begin, explaining that Carter had signed off on the premise. Duchovny said of the delay, "So now it's just a matter of making sure everybody can get together at the same time and do it."[8] The following November, Carter revealed that the project was in the negotiation stage, explaining, "Because it's a sequel, there are peculiar and specific kinds of negotiations that are holding us up."[9] Duchovny spoke of the premise for the yet-produced film in 2005, "Mulder and Scully investigate one particular case that has nothing to do with alien life. It has to do with supernatural stuff."[10] He also explained, "I think we're going back to the 'monster of the week' type feel, where if you're not an avid fan and don't understand the mythology, you can still come to it and get the movie." Duchovny and Carter planned to begin production in the winter of 2005 to be released in the summer of 2006.[11] The following April, Duchovny admitted to a lack of a script, adding that Carter would have it ready by early next year.[12]
In May 2006, Spotnitz blamed the continued delay on legal matters between Carter and 20th Century Fox. The screenwriter anticipated, "Once the legal issues are over with, we will go on with it. I'm hoping it will get resolved soon." By April 2007, Spotnitz confirmed that a script was finally in development.[13] The following October, the studio officially announced the production of the sequel film, whose premise would be kept under wraps.[14]
The film was shot in Vancouver and Pemberton, in British Columbia, Canada. According to Spotnitz, the script was written specifically for these locations.[15] Filming began in December 2007 in Vancouver under the direction of Carter,[16] and shooting finished on March 11, 2008.[15][17] In a teaser trailer shown at Wondercon on February 23, 2008, the date "July 25, 2008" appeared at the end, and was the only text in the trailer. On March 27, 2008, the horror film site, Bloody Disgusting, reported a bootleg video of the official trailer uploaded by a user on YouTube.[18] The first public trailer was released after midnight on May 12, 2008, after a period of downtime on the official website.
The decision to film the movie in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where the first five years of The X-Files had been filmed and produced before the series had moved to Los Angeles, California, was an early idea; one that seemed right to both Chris Carter and David Duchovny. According to Duchovny, "It all makes sense. You know, when Chris and I first talked about doing this movie, we kind of unconsciously both said, 'You know, I guess it should be in Vancouver, it really should be,' and it just felt like you know, almost superstitiously like the right thing to do." Filming in Vancouver also facilitated the return of many former crew members who had previously worked on The X-Files, as well as individuals who had worked on the other series that Ten Thirteen Productions had created. Frank Spotnitz said that "In terms of making of the movie, we've brought together as many people as we can, not just from The X-Files but from all the shows that we did here in Vancouver – Harsh Realm, Millennium and The Lone Gunmen – and our crew is populated with all these faces that we'd worked with, over the past fifteen years. And there's even some people from the L.A. crew."[19]
The exterior of Monica Bannan's house was actually filmed in Pemberton, British Columbia, Canada, a location that Spotnitz found to be beautiful but extremely cold. Although the location is shown in exterior shots incorporated into the scene in which Fox Mulder (Duchovny), Whitney (Amanda Peet), Drummy (Alvin "Xzibit" Joiner) and Father Joe (Billy Connolly) drove to the missing agent's home, the same scene also includes footage of the actors that was filmed on a stage, using a rear projection to show the exterior from inside the car. The latter method was used for all the shots in which any of the travelers appear.[19]
The interior of Scully's home was a set in Burnaby, outside of Vancouver. The set was an old roller rink or at least sounded like one, as it was very noisy. During filming, Carter placed a carrot juice bottle on the table of the set, having just finished the drink, as he thought it would be "a nice sort of Mulder touch." Some of the artwork in Mulder's office came from a friend of Carter's who had a gallery in Vancouver and was named Monica Reyes, a name that had previously been used in her honor for a character who features in a recurring role in the series' eighth season and appears as a main character in every episode of the series' ninth season. One of the pictures on the wall of Mulder's office was by Douglas Coupland, who was featured in the real Monica Reyes' gallery and had written a book Carter liked which was called "Hey Nostradamus!", so Carter stuck a Post-It on which he wrote the book's title onto the picture.[19]
The exterior of the dorms for habitual sex offenders where Father Joe lives, was actually an apartment complex in Vancouver that was slated for demolition while the production crew were filming there. Snow that can be seen outside the dorms, was actually fake snow that was imported by the crew and fabricated by the film's Special Effects Department. Bill Roe and Mark Freeborn worked together to create a creepy green glow on the location using green lights. The production crew also created their own factory smoke for chimneys in the background, as Carter came to the opinion that the smoking chimneys made the location look like London. The interior of Joe's apartment was another set and was exactly like the real apartment except that it was slightly bigger. A trans-light was incorporated into the set to resemble daylight visible through a window of the apartment. The set also had a porch that was used for some shots in the scene where Mulder and Scully were outside the apartment.[19]
The code name Done One was used as the film's working title during filming, with location signs labeled as "Done One Productions."[15] The name meant the producers had already done one film."The Crying Box Productions" was listed as the production company, instead of Carter's usual "Ten Thirteen Productions."[20] The Hollywood Reporter posted a series of information sheets regarding upcoming studio films, and the 20th Century Fox fact sheet referred to the film as The X-Files: Done One.
On April 16, 2008, the official title of the film was announced: The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Carter referred to the title as a "natural title", saying that it pertained to "a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. 'I Want to Believe.' It really does suggest Scully's struggle with her faith." Carter also said that he and Spotnitz settled upon the title as soon as they started writing the screenplay. This title is a popular phrase among X-Files fans. It is featured on the UFO poster above Mulder's desk.[21]
After The X-Files was cancelled in 2002, Chris Carter and his crew started working with a goal of releasing a second X-Files film. In 2003, Carter called Snow, who by that time lived in London, UK and said he wanted him to return for another film. Snow was positive to the idea, but filming got bogged down by contract issues between Fox and Carter. Once the contract issues were sorted out, Carter re-contacted Snow about the development, and later on sent him the script for the film. Carter and his production crew wanted as much secrecy for the film as possible, forcing Snow to sign a contract when receiving the script. After reading the script three times, Snow started on the "visuals" for the story. Snow wrote a couple of demos at the start; of which Carter and Frank Spotnitz weren't pleased about, but eventually worked when Snow re-recorded them.[22]
When composing the music for The X-Files: I Want to Believe, Snow called it "different" from the previous film which followed the shows mytharc storyline about the government conspiracy and aliens. He said it was much "more heart, warmth and tuneful music" since this film was based more around Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully's (Gillian Anderson) relationship.[22]
Snow recorded the score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony in May 2008 at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox in Century City, California.[23] No music was written out during Snow's recording session with the symphony orchestra. When making the music, Snow used such instruments as the "battery of percussion" taiko drums and whistles with live singers among other things. It took four days to record and write music for, and with the orchestra. He used no trumpets and no high woodwinds when recording, but used up to eight french horns, five trombones, two pianos, one harp, thirty-two violins, sixteen violas, twelve cellos and eight basses.[22]
British performers UNKLE recorded a new version of the theme music for the end credits to the movie.[24] Some of the unusual sounds were created by a variation of silly putty and dimes tucked in between and over the strings of the piano. Mark Snow also comments that the fast percussion featured in some tracks was inspired by the track 'Prospectors Quartet' from the There Will Be Blood soundtrack.[25]
Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 reviews from mainstream film critics, reported that there were "mixed or average" reviews, with an average score of 47 based on 33 reviews.[26] Rotten Tomatoes reported that 32% of 160 listed film critics, gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 4.9 out of 10. The website wrote of the critics' consensus stating; "The chemistry between leads David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson do live up to The X-Files' televised legacy, but the roving plot and droning routines make it hard to identify just what we're meant to believe in."[27] The TopTenReviews website rated the film with fairly positive reviews. From 152 reviews, 133 came out as scoring either "Good" or "Very Good".[28]
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times found the film "baggy, draggy, oddly timed and strangely off the mark" and that "Mr. Carter knows how to grab your attention visually, but the amalgam of trashy thriller clichés that he has compiled with Frank Spotnitz, another series regular, creates its own deadening effect".[29] Frank Lovece of Film Journal International, likewise said; "What plot there is plays like a PG-13 Se7en: body parts, gruesomeness, gloom and doom, but hey, not too much, and don't worry, there's nothing deeply upsetting", and while praising the cinematography, music and Gillian Anderson's performance, believes, "It seems unlikely that this franchise will reach The X-Files X".[30] Jason Anderson of Canada's CBC News called the film "muddled" with a "hurried and half-baked" climax, and said, "Beyond the pleasure of seeing Duchovny and Anderson back in action and back on form," the film "offers little to either the longtime fans or newcomers".[31] Jan Stuart from The Los Angeles Times commented; "The X-Files was a load of malarkey. But it was thoughtful malarkey and compulsively watchable. One could say the same about the first two-thirds of "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" before it spins out of control and into a delirious plane of awfulness."[32]
Roger Ebert gave a positive review of the film with three-and-a-half out of four stars, saying; "It involved actual questions of morality, just as The Dark Knight does. It's not simply about good and evil but about choices". He also felt "the movie works like thrillers used to work, before they were required to contain villains the size of buildings", also calling the film "a skillful thriller".[33] Sandra Hall of the Sydney Morning Herald was more equivocal, saying, "... it just about works, thanks to Carter's sense of timing and the script's allegorical enhancements."[34] Empire magazine gave the film three stars ("good"), but expressed a desire for Chris Carter to return to the more comedic and "post-modern" elements of the series upon the next revisit.[35] Stephanie Zackarek was mostly positive towards the film, saying; "I Want to Believe comes off like a solid if not great episode from one of the show's early seasons, a reasonably suspenseful story made by a director with a sturdy sense of how to tell a story."[36] Mick LaSalle was also positive towards the film, saying that you didn't need to know anything about the previous settings and calling it a "compelling suspense thriller with some tense moments."[37] TV Guide reviewer Maitland McDonagh gave the film two and a half stars out of four saying that the film was not "sufficiently gripping to transform a middling thriller into something truly provocative or haunting." About the theme and story she said; "such weighty concerns aren't the stuff of most mainstream genre movies."[38]
The film grossed $4 million on its opening day in the United States.[1] It opened fourth on the U.S. weekend box office chart, with a gross of $10.2 million.[39] By the end of its worldwide theatrical run, it had grossed $20,982,478 domestically[40] and an additional $47,373,805 internationally.[41] Among 2008 domestic releases, it finished in 114th place.[42] Among 2008 worldwide releases, it ended up in 78th place.[43]
The film's stars both claimed that the timing of the movie's release opposite the highly popular Batman film The Dark Knight, negatively affected its box-office return. Duchovny referred to mitigating circumstances commenting; "We happened to open on the worst day in the history of cinema, the second week of Batman. The only thing worse would be to open with Batman and nobody would've done that."[44] Anderson mused; "people in the States are so used to lots of CGI, action and sex, and we don't really offer a lot of that in this film."[45]
While receiving no awards nominations from accredited organizations, the film was included on a ballot sent to Golden Raspberry Award voters, along with twelve other films to be considered under the category "Worst Prequel, Sequel, Remake or Rip-Off." It failed to make the final list of nominees.[46]
Fox Home Entertainment released The X-Files: I Want to Believe DVD and Blu-ray Disc on December 2, 2008. As of December 6, 2009, the movie had grossed $15,822,864 from U.S. DVD/Blu-ray sales.[47]
In several interviews he gave around the time the film came out, Chris Carter said that if the X-Files: I Want to Believe movie proved successful at the box office, a third installment would be made going back to the TV-series' mythology, focusing specifically on the alien invasion and colonization of Earth foretold in the series finale, due to occur on December 21, 2012.[48][49] Fox Chairman Tom Rothman, responding to an interview question regarding the possibility of a third X-Files movie, said in October 2008, "It's really up to Chris [Carter], David [Duchovny] and Gillian [Anderson]".[50] There have been no subsequent statements from Rothman or other studio executives regarding a third film, even though Carter, Spotnitz and both stars have all since repeatedly said they'd like to make one. During an interview at the Sarajevo Film Festival in August 2009, Gillian Anderson was asked about a third film and responded; "They talked about maybe doing it in 2012. I think there were discussions about that. I don't know whether that's going to happen or not, but there isn't any reason not to do it."[51] Frank Spotnitz responded to his blog readers' requests for clarification regarding Anderson's comments by denying that any deal was in place, saying; "I'm afraid I have no news to report other than our continuing desire to make a third film if there's an audience for it."[52] In an October 2009 interview, David Duchovny likewise said he wants to do a 2012 X-Files movie, but still doesn't know if he'll get the chance.[53] Carter in December 2009 said he could not "ensure" another movie would be made, but thought the international box office for the 2008 film made it at least a theoretical possibility.[54]
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