TVSquad

From March 14th to March 27th, The Paley Center for Media is presenting the twenty-fifth annual William S. Paley Television Festival. The Paley Center, formerly the Museum of Television and Radio, says that the festival celebrates "television's rich and diverse programming and the creative process behind the medium." This year the festival included Chuck, Pushing Daisies, The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reunion, Dirty Sexy Money among others.

I've already attended the Buffy Reunion and Dirty Sexy Money (click above for those reports). Last night I went to The X-Files panel. For what happened during the event, read on past the jump.

This feels weird. Normally, there is a good bit of excitement around the nominees of the Golden Globes, particularly since it's the first big award ceremony of the year and a precursor to the Academy and Emmy awards. However, with the WGA strike in full swing, and the awards ceremony stripped down to a simple one-hour press conference televised by NBC, it all seems a bit anti-climatic.

But, taking a page from my heroes Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, I shall press on in true television reporting style and present my prediction for winner of the Golden Globe for Best Actor - Musical or Comedy.

Mark your calendars, schedule a sitter: the next X-Files movie will hit the theaters on July 25, 2008.

The movie hasn't even started filming yet. The cast and crew will reunite in Vancouver on December 10th (hmmm... I think I need to make a stalker trip to Canada). Not much has been leaked about the plot of this second The X-Files movie. Creator/writer Chris Carter says it will be a stand-alone story, much like the MOTW (Monster of the Week) episodes that fans loved so much. All that's being said is it's a "supernatural thriller", or a downright horror movie, rather than advancing the conspiracy storyline.

The July release date puts the unnamed movie smack dab in the middle of the summer blockbuster season, so Fox is evidently counting on this movie to be pretty big. The first X-Files film, Fight the Future, made $30 million during opening weekend and went on to make $189 million worldwide.

The truth is still out there.

David Duchovny, during an interview for the DVD release of The TV Set, reveals that the script for the long-awaited (seriously, it's been ten years!) X-Files movie sequel is indeed done and it looks like they're going to start filming in December.

Duchovny had no further details on plot, though he has hinted in past interviews that this will be more of a stand alone movie and not part of the mythology arc from the show and first movie (aw, come on, I want to know what's been going on with that whole thing the past several years). Duchovny does ask one thing of people: don't spoil the damn movie by leaking info about it. Thank you.

[via TV Tattle]

Unfortunately, it's not as a new super-villain on the next season of Venture Bros., although really, somebody should do about getting that put together, don't you think? Instead, Duchovny will be executive producer of a live-action kids show for the network.

Right now, it's just a pilot order, and there's no title yet, but the show will tell the story of a junior high kid from a long line of newsmen who uses the high school A/V club to launch a legitimate citywide news broadcast. Joining Duchovny on the team are Matt Dearborn (Even Stevens), who wrote the pilot, and Robert Mora (Phil of the Future, The Secret Life of Alex Mack).

Five years after the end of The X-Files, David Duchovny is back on the small screen! Okay, he did guest star here and there since then but coming this Monday, he is back as a regular on a series.

Duchovny will play Hank Moody, a self-destructive writer, in Showtime's Californication. TV fans who are used to seeing Duchovny portray The X-Files' Fox Mulder and haven't seen much of his other projects will be placed outside of their comfort zone when watching him play Hank Moody, especially if they tune in Californication without knowing what it's about.

Before reading the script for Showtime's Californication, I read up on the potential series. Here is how the network describes this comedy series:

"Following in the footsteps of the successful and highly-acclaimed series Dexter, Weeds and Brotherhood, Showtime has ordered 12 half-hour episodes of a stylish new comedy series schedule to premiere in August. [...] Sophisticated and unique, this comedy centers on novelist Hank Moody ([David] Duchovny) who struggles to raise his 13-year-old daughter (Madeleine Martin), while still carrying a torch of his ex-girlfriend Karen ([Natascha] McElhone). His obsession with truth-telling and self-destructive behavior -- drinks, drugs and relationships -- are both destroying and enriching his career."

Our friends at sister site Cinematical have some good news for any remaining fans of The X-Files: a second theatrical film, which star David Duchovny has been talking about making for a few years now, is closer to being a reality. During a set visit to Duchovny's currently shooting film The TV Set, IESB.net found out from the actor that negotiations are currently in their final stages, and that the film should start filming in 2008 or sooner.

According to IESB, Duchovny had mentioned the possibility of a second X-Files movie in 2005; instead of an alien conspiracy plot, though, Scully and Mulder would be engaged in a "standalone supernatural horror film," as IGN reported back then. That's probably a good idea, since the series ended five years ago (and most people stopped watching soon after the first movie frustrated die-hard fans way back in 1998). Continuing the conspiracy storyline would feel like they were beating the pile of dog food that the dead horse was made into. Though I wouldn't mind seeing a glimpse of the Cigarette Smoking Man again...

Former TV stars don't fade away, they just get new gigs on hip new shows on cable.

David Duchovny, Agent Fox Mulder of X-Files fame, has just signed on to star in a new comedy for Showtime. He'll play a writer named Hank Moody who is divorced with a 16 year-old daughter. He's not only still in love with his ex-girlfriend, played by Natasha McElhone of Solaris), but he has a lot of addictions too. The show will premiere this summer and be paired with another quirky show, Weeds. There's no title yet, though the pilot was titled Californication.

This might be the series that finally makes me get Showtime. Oh, this and This American Life.

According to David Boreanaz's Bones blog, actor David Duchovny will be directing an upcoming episode of Bones. The crew had just finished taping the episode "Aliens in a Spaceship," and Boreanaz writes that Duchovny will be directing the "next episode" which is listed as "The Headless Witch in the Woods," an episode that currently has no specific airdate at the moment. Boreanz also writes that Duchovny may appear in a future episode. Duchovny has been absent from television for awhile now as he ventures further into his film career, so if you've been anxiously waiting to see him on television again, this is your chance. Duchovny last appeared on TV in an episode of Sex and the City in 2003.

[via Dark Horizons]

No, the former X-Files star isn't broke and having a yard sale, The TV Set is a new film starring David Duchovny as a TV writer. It follows the ups and downs of a writer in Hollywood, from pilot pitch to filming. The movie also stars Sigourney Weaver, Justine Bateman, and Ioan Gruffudd.

This is the type of movie I'm definitely going to see, because I'm a writer and have an interest in how Hollywood works, but I can also nod in agreement when the article says "Yup, it's the kind of inside Hollywood dark comedy that Middle America loves." Heh.