Yes, for the first of what I hope to be many occasions, I'm sharing with you the transcript of an interview I did this morning with X-Files writer and producer Frank Spotnitz. Frank joined the show during the second season and stayed until the very end, as well as working on Millenium and The Lone Gunmen, the two X-Files spin-offs. We had a chat about the upcoming X-Files: I Want To Believe which, having not seen nor been spoiled on, made for some interesting dancing around hot topics, but I think you'll agree I managed to wrestle some sweet tidbits for you!

Let's get to it!

FRANK SPOTNITZ INTERVIEW

Tom Ragg: Thanks so much for taking the time today, it's a real thrill to get the chance to speak to you.

Frank Spotnitz: No problems, my pleasure.

TR: Now, we're going to be having a bit of a chat about the new X-Files movie which, obviously, I've not seen yet, but I can't tell you how excited I am for it! This, of course, makes it very difficult for us to talk about anything from the film in too much detail, so I thought we could go back and take a look at some of the elements of the show and see how they've progressed into the movie, if that's cool...

FS: I'll tell you what I can! It may not be much, but I'll do what I can.

TR: Fantastic. Well, you joined the show during season 2 and you were very heavily involved in establishing and maintaining the mythology. What I've been led to believe is that this movie is quite seperate from the mythology of the show, almost like a stand-alone episode. Is this the case?

FS: That is correct, yeah.

TR: I ask because my younger brother, he's just turned eighteen, and I've been trying really hard to get him into the X-Files. It's one of those shows where, if you weren't watching from the beginning, it could be quite daunting, but I have a feeling he might get hooked with the movie.

FS: Well, that's our big hope, I have to say. We want the movie to work for fans, definitely, but we're hoping to get a lot of people who never saw the show interested.

TR: Awesome. The show ended back in 2002; flash-forward six years later, the movie is coming out now. Was it always your intention to do another movie?

FS: Yes it was, but we never thought it would take this long! We were approached by the studio, i think it was late 2001 honestly, well before the show ended. But at the time, with working on the show... We started working on the movie after the show ended in 2003, began working on the story, but deal making and the legal dispute between Chris Carter and the studio held it up four years.

TR: That's a very long time in Hollywood....

FS: A loooong time, and I started thinking "Maybe this'll never happen..." But then Chris and the studio resolved their differences last year and practically the next day, the movie was back on.

TR: Is the story for the film the same as what you'd envisioned back then or has it changed as time has gone on?

FS: it has changed, that's what was kind of interesting about it. The X-File, the mystery, is the same idea we had back in 2003 but everything else about it changed in those four years. We discovered that we'd gotten older, as had Mulder and Scully and we had a lot to say about them and where they'd be in their lives. It became a much more personal and emotional movie for them than it would have been had we made it straight after the series ended.

TR: The fact that this is a relationship-based movie is what has me most excited, as it was always the characters of X-Files who had me hooked rather than the mythology, so to see that there's a film based solely around the characters is great. I happen to be a massive fan of The Lone Gunmen, which you had a large hand in. You wrote the episode where they met their demise, but they sprung up again in the X-Files finale. Is there any chance that we may see some form of The Lone Gunmen in the film?

FS: Well, no one ever really dies on the X-Files so I wouldn't rule out The Lone Gunmen appearing again at some point, but I'm not going to reveal just yet who is or isn't in this movie.

TR: Fantastic - this has me questioning if there could be any Millenium links... Moving on, you cast someone quite unusual in this film in Billy Connolly. I've seen him in a lot of roles where he's played against type, but never in a sci-fi role. How did casting him come about?

FS: You know, it's funny, Chris and I are both big fans of his and we've wanted to do something with him for a long time and always felt he was somewhat underappreciated as a dramatic actor, so we wrote this part with Billy specifically in mind hoping that he would do it. Chris actually met with him in LA briefly as he was about to head to NY. We were extremely paranoid about releasing our scripts to anyone, we didn't even give David and Gillian copies, but we wanted Billy to do this so badly and he was about to leave so Chris actually gave him his copy of the script to read! The next day, Billy sent the script back with a note saying "When do we start?"

TR: You've got a few other people cast in some unexpected roles - Xzibit, for example, he's not exactly known for his dramatic roles yet, but I hear that he's very good in the film?

FS: He's very good, a real actor and I think people are going to realize that with this movie. I mean, we didn't realize he was such a great actor either before ! We were somewhat familiar with his music and as the host of Pimp My Ride on MTV, but he came in, read for the part and won it on the spot, he was so good.

TR: Would I be correct in assuming that he and Amanda Peet seem to be continuing the tradition of introducing other pairs of agents like you did on the show?

FS: Yes, they're both FBI agents that Mulder and Scully are working with.

TR: I wanted to ask a little bit about the title of the film. It seems very self-explanatory, but I was rewatching the finale the other night and I realized that the last words of the show are Scully saying to Mulder, "Then we believe the same thing" and he replying "Maybe there's hope". We're now returning to the characters in a film titled I Want To Believe - am I correct in thinking that we'll be taking a look at their belief systems, both seperately and together?

FS: Yes, maybe not in the exact way that you're thinking but yes! That's why it was an unexpected title for a lot of people, but the perfect title for us because it's very much what this film is about, the notion of wanting to believe and what you believe. You might remember Mulder has a poster with those words in his office... When you see the movie, I think you'll understand the relevence a lot better.

TR: Awesome! Now, the last thing I wanted to ask you about was the comic you're writing for Wildstorm - is this an adaptation of the film or a stand-alone story?

FS: It's a stand-alone story, and it's really a relaunching of the X-Files in comic book form. It's not set in the present day, but rather at some point between season two and five when Mulder and Scully were still at the FBI. It means we can bring back all sorts of great characters from those days in the show. So, I've written the first for them which is coming out this month, The X-Files Special #0, and I'm working on another two as we speak. I'm going to try to show up to Comic-Con to promote the book if I can, but I'm not 100% on that yet.

TR: Well, I hope to see you there so I can meet you and shake your hand. The X-Files has been a big part of my life, I still have nights awake because of 'Squeeze'. I know you weren't directly involved in that episode, but I saw it on a school camp and I still lose sleep over the man in the rafters, coming to eat my liver.

FS: Great, I love to hear stories like that! And I hope to see you at Comic-Con.

So there you have it - and I thought I was pumped for this movie before! X-Files: I Want To Believe will be in Australian cinemas July 24th.

~Trust no one, Mr Mulder.~

~T