The X-Files (film)

After five successful seasons, Chris Carter wanted to tell the story of the series on a wider scale, which ultimately meant creating a feature film. He later explained that the main problem was to create a story for which the viewer would not need to be familiar with the show's setting and the various story arcs.[4]

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.[5]

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 as a producer on 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.[6]

During production, the filmmakers went to great lengths to preserve secrecy, including printing the script on red paper to prevent photocopying,[4] 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. During the North Texas scene, "Blackwood County" can be seen on the fire trucks responding to the infected boy. According to Spotnitz, "Blackwood" held no particular significance.[7]

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 to 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.[8]

Martin Landau was one of the film's well-known stars

Both Carter and Spotnitz wanted to make the film "bigger" than the series, so they decided to start and end the film at an "extreme place" and explain aspects of the story arc that the show had not. While gathering research materials, they learned that the Earth was once covered with ice and decided to open the film in Texas in 35,000 BC with human "Primitives" as the first characters to appear.[9]

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."[10] He saw creating the film as a chance to break this rule. He offered Glenne Headly the small role of a bartender. A fan of the show, she accepted enthusiastically.[10]

Chris Nowak was hired as production designer for the film by Daniel Sackheim. Nowak was a former architect who had worked as a professional theater set designer for eight years, before moving towards the film business as an art director. Nowak had previously worked with Sackheim on a television production, which led to Sackheim contacting him to do an interview for the selection of a production designer. According to Sackheim, Nowak was hired because he was the only one able to create a "focused vision" for the film.[11]

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."[11]

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.[11]

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.[11]

Carter and Bowman wanted to film in as many different locations as possible to give the film a "grander" feel than had usually been achievable for the television episodes.[4][9] The tighter schedule, with only eight weeks of pre-production and 45 days of principal photography, still caused the production to have less location shooting than planned. Los Angeles ended up standing in for Dallas and London (though a shot was done in London with a double), and the ice scenes, initially envisaged for an ice field in Alaska, were moved to Whistler, British Columbia, nearby the show's regular locations in Vancouver.[13] Principal photography for the film started on June 16, 1997.[12]

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.[14]

Two soundtracks, The X-Files: Original Motion Picture Score[15] and The X-Files: The Album were both released to home markets in 1998. The X-Files: The Album included a take on the original theme song by the American duo The Dust Brothers, and included a hidden track on which Chris Carter details a summary of The X-Files mythology.[16] Mark Snow, who had worked on the television series as a composer, was hired to score the film. Chris Carter wanted a "very minimal approach" to the music. He did not want much "melody" and wanted to replace it with plain "ambient atmosphere" and "sound design". Snow mixed electronic music with an 85-member orchestra to give the film a "great sense of scope and grandeur."[4]

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.[17]

The film premiered theatrically in the United States (as well as Canada) on June 19, 1998, distributed by 20th Century Fox. It closed after 14 weeks, with its widest release having been 2,650 theaters.[2]

The same year as the international theatrical release, the film was released on VHS and DVD on October 13, 1998, with the VHS version featuring an Extended Cut edition that is 41 seconds longer[18] than the theatrical release.[19][20] The film later appeared on DVD on January 24, 2000 in Region 2.[21] In 2008, producer Frank Spotnitz announced plans to release a new special edition DVD and Blu-ray edition of the film. "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."[22] The Blu-ray version was released on December 2, 2008.[23] In addition, a novelization of the film was written by Elizabeth Hand and released on June 19, 1998.[24]

The film grossed $83,898,313 in the U.S. and $105,278,110 abroad, giving a total worldwide gross of $189,176,423.[2] In its opening weekend, showing at 2,629 theaters, it earned $30,138,758 which was 35.9% of its total gross.[2] According to Box Office Mojo, it ranked at No. 23 for all films released in the U.S. in 1998 and No. 10 for PG-13 rated films released that year.

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 66% rating based on reviews from 72 critics and an average rating of 6.1/10. The consensus states, "Results may vary for newcomers, but fans of the series will enjoy its big-screen transition."[25] On Metacritic the film has a score of 60 out of 100, based on reviews from 23 critics.[26] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A- on scale of A to F.[27]

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."[29] 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.[30] San Francisco Chronicle reviewer Bob Graham was positive towards the film, calling "David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson [...] enormously sympathetic heroes."[20] Michael O'Sullivan, a reviewer from The Washington Post called the film, "stylish, scary, sardonically funny and at times just plain gross."[31]

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.[32] Lisa Alspector wrote that "Only two scenes in this spin-off are worth the time of followers of the TV series."[33] 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."[34] Janet Maslin of The New York Times responded negatively towards the film, opining that it was uneventful and scorning the "hush-hush atmosphere" surrounding the production.[35] Andrew Johnston reviewed the film in Time Out New York and observed: "The X-Files has always been the most cinematic show on TV, and Bowman (who's directed many of its best episodes) expands the show's scale and impact on the big screen while keeping its charms intact."[36]