name | The X-Files |
---|---|
director | Rob Bowman |
producer | Chris CarterDaniel Sackheim |
screenplay | Chris Carter |
story | Chris CarterFrank Spotnitz |
starring | David DuchovnyGillian Anderson |
music | Mark Snow |
cinematography | Ward Russell |
editing | Stephen Mark |
studio | Ten Thirteen Productions |
distributor | 20th Century Fox |
released | |
runtime | 121 minutes |
country | |
language | English |
budget | $66 million |
gross | $189,176,423 |
followed by | ''The X-Files: I Want to Believe'' }} |
The story follows agents Mulder (Duchovny) and Scully (Anderson), removed from their usual jobs on the X-Files, and investigating the bombing of a building and the destruction of criminal evidence. They uncover what appears to be a government conspiracy attempting to hide the truth about an alien colonization of Earth. In addition to dealing with mysterious adversaries and unhelpful bosses, the agents face the end of their professional partnership. When Scully is abducted, Mulder goes to Antarctica to rescue her and finds a huge underground laboratory in an alien space craft containing cocooned aliens. The lab is destroyed and he witnesses the alien spacecraft flying off into the distance. At the end of the film, the X-Files unit is reopened. Viewed in the context of ''The X-Files'' chronology, the film's story takes place between seasons five (episode ''The End'') and six (episode ''The Beginning'') of the television series, and is based upon the series' extraterrestrial mythology.
Chris Carter decided to make a feature film to explore the show's mythology on a wider scale, as well as appealing to non-fans. He wrote the script with Frank Spotnitz at the end of 1996 and, with a budget from Fox, filming began in 1997, following the end of the show's fourth season. Carter assembled cast and crew from the show, as well as some other, well-known actors such as Blythe Danner and Martin Landau, to begin production on what they termed "Project Blackwood". Mark Snow continued his role as ''X-Files'' composer to create the film's score.
The film premiered on June 19, 1998 in the United States, and received mixed reviews from critics. Although some enjoyed the style and effects of the film, others found the plot confusing and viewed it as little more than an extended episode of the series. A sequel, ''The X-Files: I Want to Believe'', was released ten years later.
Meanwhile, FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) have been assigned to other projects since the closure of the X-Files. They are helping to investigate a bomb threat against a federal building in Dallas, Texas. Mulder scouts out a building across the street from the believed target and discovers the bomb in a vending machine. Special Agent in Charge Darius Michaud (Terry O'Quinn) stays behind to disarm the bomb as Mulder and Scully evacuate the building. Unknown to the agents, Michaud makes no effort to disarm the bomb, which ultimately detonates.
Returning to Washington, D.C., Mulder and Scully are chastised because, in addition to Michaud, four people were still in the building when it exploded. They are scheduled separate hearings at which their job performances will be evaluated. That evening, Mulder encounters a paranoid doctor, Alvin Kurtzweil (Martin Landau), who explains that the four victims were already dead, and that the bomb was allowed to detonate to destroy the evidence of how they died.
Mulder and Scully travel to the crime scene in Texas. On the way they follow a convoy of tanker trucks to a large cornfield surrounding two bright, glowing domes. When they enter the domes, they find them empty, but grates in the floor open up and a thick swarm of bees forces the agents out onto the cornfield. Soon black helicopters appear overhead, chasing them, and the two escape back to Washington.
Upon their return, Mulder unsuccessfully tries to seek help from Kurtzweil, while Scully attends her performance hearing and learns that she is to be transferred to Salt Lake City, Utah. Mulder is devastated to lose Scully as a partner. The two share a tender moment, when Scully is stung by a bee which had lodged itself under her shirt collar. She quickly loses consciousness. Mulder calls for emergency aid but when an ambulance arrives, the driver shoots Mulder in the head and whisks Scully away. Awaking in hospital, Mulder is informed that the bullet only grazed his temple, and leaves with the assistance of The Lone Gunmen. He is accosted by a former adversary, the Well-Manicured Man (John Neville), who gives him Scully's location in Antarctica along with a vaccine to combat the virus that has infected her. The Well-Manicured Man then is killed in a car bomb before his betrayal of The Syndicate (a shadow government group working against Mulder and Scully) is discovered.
Mulder travels to Antarctica to save Scully, and discovers a secret underground laboratory run by their enemy the Cigarette Smoking Man (William B. Davis). Mulder uses the vaccine to revive Scully, disrupting the stable environment of the lab and reviving the cocooned aliens. The lab is destroyed just after Mulder and Scully escape to the surface. It turns out to be part of a huge alien vessel lying dormant beneath the snow; the vessel leaves its underground port and launches into the sky. Mulder watches the ship fly directly overhead and disappear into the distance, as Scully regains consciousness.
Some time later, Mulder and Scully attend a hearing where their testimony is ignored, and the evidence covered up. The only remaining proof of their ordeal is the bee that stung Scully, collected by the Lone Gunmen. She hands it over, noting that the FBI does not currently have an investigative unit qualified to pursue the evidence at hand. Later, appalled by the media's cover-up of the incident, Mulder tries to persuade Scully to leave his crusade. She refuses, saying, "If I quit now, they win."
At another crop outpost in Tunisia, the Cigarette Smoking Man hands Strughold a telegram revealing that the X-Files unit has been re-opened.
Carter and Frank Spotnitz wrote major parts of the script in Hawaii over Christmas 1996. They used the same method that they had used when writing episodes and sketching out scenes for the series on 3x5 index cards. By the time the Christmas break had ended, the whole narrative for the film had been written. Upon his return from Hawaii, Carter looked for spare time to write the script. He returned to Hawaii and in ten days wrote about half of the 124-page screenplay for the film.
Carter gave 90 pages of the screenplay to Fox who received it well. While not officially greenlighted, he got a budget from Fox and began to make plans as to when and where it would be filmed. Carter then enlisted Daniel Sackheim to produce the film. Sackheim had previously produced the pilot episode of ''The X-Files'' and directed several episodes in the first two seasons. ''The X-Files'' marked his first contribution as producer to a feature film. Carter's choice for director was Rob Bowman, who had been the series' executive producer and a director before the production base was moved from Vancouver to Los Angeles.
During production, the filmmakers went to great lengths to preserve secrecy, including printing the script on red paper to prevent photocopying, and leaking disinformation to the media and giving the film the codename "Project Blackwood". The code was cracked by fans who speculated on the meaning behind it. According to Spotnitz, "Blackwood" held no particular significance.
At the beginning of the pre-production phase, Carter and Bowman were busy with the television series, leaving Sackheim to work alone. Sackheim hired executive producer Lata Ryan, who had previously collaborated with Steven Spielberg for his 1993 film, ''Jurassic Park''. Once hired, Ryan was allowed to read the script in front of the Ten Thirteen Productions staff members—but not take it away. At this time, most of the staff members had not read the script for themselves. After Ryan accepted the offer of becoming executive producer, Chris Nowak was hired as production designer, Ward Russell as director of photography and Bill Liams as construction coordinator. According to Ryan, they had secured all key personnel six weeks before principal filming began.
The film included known actors from the show such as David Duchovny as Fox Mulder, Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully, Mitch Pileggi as Walter Skinner and William B. Davis as the Cigarette Smoking Man, as well as new actors and characters to the franchise. These included Martin Landau and Blythe Danner. The signing of these actors broke with what had become tradition for ''The X-Files''. Carter had purposely cast virtually unknown actors for the television series, to make it more believable; "As soon as you put in an actor whose face is very recognizable, you've got a situation that works against the reality of the show." He saw creating the film as a chance to break this rule. He offered Glenne Headly the small role of a barmaid. A fan of the show, she accepted enthusiastically.
Nowak wanted to start the design process after talking through the story with the filmmakers so that he could formulate "a sense of the atmosphere" which they wanted to create for the film. He wanted to create a "dark, scary and oppressive environment" for the characters, especially Mulder. While familiar with the television series, Nowak decided not to review any episodes as preparation for his role in the production. Explaining this decision, he said, "I wanted the movie to be as fresh and new as possible in its design. Of course, there were some elements from the show that had to be retained."
The design department found all their locations and designed sets in eight weeks, guided by input from the filmmakers. Nowak started by creating artwork for all the major sets and locations, working with the two concept artists Tim Flattery and Jim Martin. Nowak created drafts and sent them to Flattery and Martin who continued to develop them until they were complete. The complete artwork was then presented to Chris Carter, Rob Bowman, Lata Ryan and Sackheim for approval. While considering the time schedule, they made no notable changes to the artwork.
Once the set concepts were approved by Carter, Bowman, Sackheim and Ryan, they were sent to the blueprint stage so that construction of the sets could begin under the supervision of construction coordinator Bill Liams. All the major sets were constructed "simultaneously" because of the schedule. However, this proved to be a challenge for the production team, because it meant they had to pay the rent on all the stages at the same time. The set construction started seven weeks before filming.
''The X-Files'' was filmed in the hiatus between the show's fourth and fifth seasons and re-shoots were conducted during the filming of the show's fifth season. Due to the demands of the film shoot on the actors' schedules, some episodes of the fifth season did not revolve around both Mulder and Scully but just one of the two lead stars.
When creating the music for the film, Snow had a couple of months to write and produce the music, composing the television series simultaneously. The film marked the first time in the history of the franchise that music was composed and recorded with the help of an orchestra, although, according to Snow, there was no significant change in the recording and writing process during the production of the film. The most substantial difference was that Snow used MIDI files to save his musical scores and pieces, which would afterward be sent to a copyist who would take it through one of their programs and eventually give it to the orchestrators.
A novelization was written by Elizabeth Hand. The two soundtracks, ''The X-Files: Original Motion Picture Score'' and ''The X-Files: The Album'' were both released to home markets in 1998. ''The X-Files: The Album'' included the original theme song, "The X-Files" and included a hidden track on which Chris Carter details a summary of ''The X-Files'' mythology. The same year as the international theatrical release, the film was released on VHS. The film made its first appearance on DVD on January 24, 2000 in Region 2 and in early 2001 in Region 1. In 2008, producer Frank Spotnitz announced plans to release a new Special Edition DVD and Blu-ray Edition of the movie. "We are working on packing the [re-issued] DVD and Blu-ray releases with as many extras as they will fit, including video and audio commentaries, behind-the-scenes footage, bloopers, trailers, a new documentary, and several other cool surprises." The Blu-ray version was released on December 2, 2008.
Roger Ebert gave a positive review of the film with three out of four stars, saying, "As pure movie, ''The X-Files'' more or less works. As a story, it needs a sequel, a prequel, and Cliff Notes." Joyce Millman of ''Salon'' was more equivocal, writing, "... You really can't treat "The X-Files" as a movie because it isn't one. It's a two-hour episode of the show," and said it was far from the "most satisfying" of ''X-Files'' releases. ''San Francisco Chronicle'' reviewer Bob Graham was positive towards the film, calling "David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson [...] enormously sympathetic heroes" Michael O'Sullivan, a reviewer from ''The Washington Post'' called the film, "stylish, scary, sardonically funny and at times just plain gross."
''Los Angeles Times'' reviewer Kenneth Turan felt that it was difficult to make sense of the film, saying that it relied too heavily on the series' mythology. Lisa Alspector wrote that "Only two scenes in this spin-off are worth the time of followers of the TV series." ''Variety'' reviewer Todd McCarthy remarked, "As it is, the pic serves up set-pieces and a measure of scope that are beyond TV size but remain rather underwhelming by feature standards" Janet Maslin of ''The New York Times'' responded negatively towards the film, complaining that it was uneventful and scorning the "hush-hush atmosphere" surrounding the production.
Category:1998 films Category:American films Category:English-language films Category:20th Century Fox films Category:1990s science fiction films Category:Alien visitation films Category:American science fiction action films Category:American science fiction horror films Category:Detective films Category:Films based on television series Category:Films set in Antarctica Category:Films set in Texas Category:Films set in Washington, D.C. Category:The X-Files
bg:Досиетата Х (филм) de:Akte X – Der Film es:The X-Files: Fight the Future fr:The X Files, le film it:X-Files - Il film he:תיקים באפלה: הסרט nl:The X-Files (film) ja:Xファイル#Xファイル ザ・ムービー pl:Z Archiwum X: Pokonać przyszłość pt:The X-Files (filme) ru:Секретные материалы: Борьба за будущее fi:X-Files – taistelu tulevaisuudesta sv:Arkiv X: Fight The Future uk:Цілком таємно (фільм)This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
name | Nicholas Lea |
---|---|
birth name | Nicholas Christopher Herbert |
birth date | June 22, 1962 |
birth place | New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada |
awards | }} |
Nicholas Lea (born Nicholas Christopher Herbert, June 22, 1962) is a Canadian actor best known for his portrayal of Alex Krycek on ''The X-Files'' and on ''Kyle XY'' playing Tom Foss.
The producers were impressed by his performance and when, in the second season, he auditioned for the role of turncoat FBI agent Alex Krycek, he was successful. Lea guest starred in eleven episodes from 1994 to 1996 and became a popular character amongst the fans. Because of his character's willingness to switch sides, he was known as the 'ratboy'. In the season three episode "Apocrypha," Krycek was left to die in an abandoned missile silo with an alien ship.
This allowed Lea to take a starring role in the series ''Once a Thief'' — which followed on from the 1996 John Woo film — alongside Ivan Sergei. The series was cancelled after one season. Lea continued to play Krycek, who became a nemesis not just of Mulder and Scully but particularly of A.D. Skinner (Mitch Pileggi).
Lea co-starred with Lau Ching-Wan, Theresa Lee (李綺紅) and Bif Naked in the Hong Kong-Canadian film ''Lunch with Charles'' in 2001.
In 2006, Lea had a role on ABC Family's ''Kyle XY'' (26 episodes) playing Tom Foss, Kyle's tutor, and was one of the lead actors (playing Ethan McKaye) on the Canadian TV series ''Whistler''. He was also that series' associate producer. He did not return to ''Whistler'' for its second season in 2007.
He has guest starred in shows such as ''NYPD Blue'' (3 episodes), ''Andromeda'', ''Burn Notice'', ''Sliders'', ''Highlander: The Series'', ''Judging Amy'', ''CSI'' (4 episodes) (as Catherine Willows' boyfriend) and ''Men in Trees'' (10 episodes) (as Eric, the minister). He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Lyric School of Acting in Vancouver.
Nicholas has also guest starred in the new ABC sci-fi series V.
Lea appeared in the film "Guido Superstar: The Rise of Guido", starring, produced, and directed by Silvio Pollio, including Lea, John Cassini, Terry Chen, and Michael Eklund
The film screened at the 2010 Vancouver International Film Festival Thursday, Oct. 7 at 9:45 p.m. and Friday, Oct. 8, at 10:45 a.m., both at the Empire Granville 7 in downtown Vancouver, BC.
Category:1962 births Category:Actors from British Columbia Category:Canadian television actors Category:Living people Category:People from New Westminster Category:Canadian people of English descent
de:Nicholas Lea es:Nicholas Lea fr:Nicholas Lea it:Nicholas Lea ja:ニコラス・リー pt:Nicholas Lea ru:Николас Леа fi:Nicholas Lea sv:Nicholas LeaThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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