The X-Files is returning to television screens this month, with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson in tow. Obviously fans of the original series are excited about the sci-fi drama making its triumphant comeback to the small screen. Series creator Chris Carter insists that this is only the beginning though, revealing that he has already written a third X-Files movie that he hopes will one day see the light of day.
Rather than folding elements of the script into the impending X-Files mini-series, Chris Carter explained how his wife was actually the one who put him off using it on TV. Instead she insisted that he was perfect for cinema. He made this revelation at the Television Critics Association press tour on Friday morning (via The Hollywood Reporter), saying:
I actually wrote a third movie, just because I was interested in the idea of where that might go. I let my wife read the third movie, and she said, ‘I think not for television’."
Clearly The X-Files writer and director has a rather long list of potential stories to use for the show. Carter also admitted that none of the script for his potential third X-Files movie made it into the six episodes that are about to air on Fox.
While The X-Files is rightly lauded as one of the finest television shows of the last 30 years, its efforts on the big-screen failed to really match this acclaim. Sure, 1998’s The X-Files: Fight the Future, which once again paired Duchovny with Anderson in the leading roles, and also featured the respected cinematic talents of Martin Landau and Blythe Danner, grossed the respectable $189.2 million and currently has a 64% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but it still only felt like an elongated episode rather than a film in its own right.
This was followed a decade later in 2008 by The X-Files: I Want To Believe, which failed to even match either the box office or critical response of the original. In fact, its $30 million budget only returned a $68.4 million box office, which probably isn’t enough for 20th Century Fox to greenlight another movie.
From the sound of things, Chris Carter is aware of that. During the same interview he admitted that he is now waiting for Fox to order even more episodes of The X-Files, which he hopes will happen in the very near future.
David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson’s busy schedules means that getting them back together for a longer series could prove difficult. However, if the 6 episode X-Files event proves to be as big a hit as 20th Century Fox hopes, then efforts to reunite them again will increase tenfold.
