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The X-Files creator Chris Carter has been hospitalized for exhaustion. This was brought on by "physical exhaustion and an acute sleeping disorder."

The pressure on the man must be enormous. He's working on a new movie Fencewalker and just finished The X-Files: I Want to Believe movie. While reviews of the movie weren't great, it did make $60 million in the worldwide box office (from a $30 million budget). That's not including the inevitable DVD sales (which will probably be strong due to the number of X-Files enthusiasts out there). How much does a movie have to make in order to be considered a success by Hollywood standards?

I admit that I know nothing about Chris Carter, so the skeptic in me can't help but wonder if "exhaustion" is a euphemism for some other addiction. Perhaps he and David Duchovny will run into each other while hospitalized and chat about old times.

I didn't think going into the weekend that the new X-Files movie (see Cinematical's review) had much of a shot at opening at number one. After the opening that the new Batman enjoyed the previous weekend, it was going to be a tough mountain to climb. That being said, I didn't think number two was an overly ambitious goal. And number three would have been a bit surprising. But number four and $10.2 million? Yikes.

As expected, The Dark Knight once again topped the box office with the biggest second weekend on record. Surprisingly though, Mulder and Scully also trailed Step Brothers and the second week of Mama Mia. The B word is already being tossed around, understandably so. Despite that, studio executives are standing by to assure everyone that with foreign box office and DVD the movie will still turn a profit. That's all well and good, but I don't think anyone should be getting their hopes up for round three any time soon.

Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of classic TV shows.

(S01E03 & S01E21) We almost take it for granted these days that a DVD set of our favorite shows will be forthcoming. We might not always agree with the scheduling, but it's a pretty safe bet that most everything we watch in the coming season will be arriving on DVD eventually. It wasn't like that back in the wilds of 1993. But things were about to change.

I'm not sure if The X-Files was the first show to embrace the home video market, but it was the first one that I took notice of. And it was the first one that I actually bought ... on VHS. That gorgeous three tape box set in the picture is one of three that I have, and each of them carry a whopping six episodes on their oh so delicate tapes. For X-Files week, I dusted this one off and fed my VCR the tape containing "Squeeze" and "Tooms," two of my favorite early episodes.

The X-Files was a one-of-a-kind, groundbreaking show. It took the typical FBI detective show and spun it, but good. Add some aliens and government conspiracy and you've done one better than a weekly FBI caper.

And the extraterrestrial and supernatural make for some good quotes, starting with the pilot, when Scully refers to Mulder by his nickname from the academy: "Spooky Mulder."

Or how about Mulder's understatement of the millennium: " ... in most of my work, the laws of physics rarely seems to apply."

Oh, I'll be there, probably on opening weekend, but something about the new X-Files flick makes me nervous as hell.

Maybe it's the fact that it has been ten years since the last movie, and I wonder if people are still interested in it enough to make it a hit (and push another movie into production). I also worry about the plot, since nothing much has been leaked about what the film is about, other than it involves snow, mysterious happenings, and Billy Connolly bleeding from the eyes.

No, the real reason I'm worried is that the movie has a "standalone" plot and is not part of the mythology arc from the show and the first movie. I think this could be a mistake.

Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of classic TV shows.

(S05E11) When I heard that we were going to be doing an X-Files week for Retro Squad the first thing that came to mind was "Killswitch." It has long been my favorite episode of the series. Aside from being a great story, it also serves as a marker for where my interest in the series changed.

By the time they made it to "Killswitch," X-Files had started to lose me with the mythology episodes. In the beginning it was almost annoying when there would be a standalone episode. I was so engrossed in the bigger picture story that it was like being forced to take a week off from that which I was really interested in. By season five, though, that interest had waned. Not that the show had gotten bad, just that it was pretty clear that those big answers weren't coming any time soon, so I started looking forward to these episodes more and more. And for me, "Killswitch" is the pinnacle of The X-Files in that form.

This latest trailer for The X-Files movie, coming out July 25th, actually has some meat to it. The past teaser-trailers haven't shown much except some snow and a lot of flashes of black. In this trailer, we actually get to see some of Mulder and Scully's co-stars -- namely, Amanda Peet and Billy Connolly. Peet appears to be an FBI agent who is a bit of an outsider because she's a believer in the paranormal, which is why Mulder is brought on to the case. Connolly plays an unusual man, a psychic, who may or may not be nuts.

We told you last week about the new X-Files DVD set and how the episodes on the set might give a clue as to what the new big screen movie will be about. Now we have another clue, sorta: the movie has a title.

Creator and producer Chris Carter has announced that the title of the movie is The X-Files: I Want To Believe. That's a perfect title! As fans of the show know, this was pretty much Agent Mulder's mantra and the caption on a famous poster that he kept on the wall in his office (on the right is a scene from the new movie). The first X-Files movie was titled The X-Files: Fight The Future.

So Isabelle posted a story recently about the new X-Files sequel that is supposed to hit theaters this July 25. The movie has been pretty much under wraps, except for a snippet of film here and some behind the scenes photos there. And the cast and crew certainly aren't saying anything about the movie's plot. The only hint we've received is that this movie has more to do with a standalone mystery than the alien mythology storyline from the show (and the first film).

But now I'm slightly confused, as this press release for a new X-Files DVD set says that the set gives a hint as to what we can expect in the movie.

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.

X-Files fans rejoice: the sequel really is going to happen. In fact, they've already started filming!

On the right is one of the first pics from the set. David Duchovny has his Fox Mulder hair back, while Gillian Anderson seems to be sporting a new do. But I'll stop talking about hair right now because it's weird.

Creator/director Chris Carter says that they're completely dumping the whole alien mythology storyline from the show, since they already "wrapped up a lot of threads" from the show (really?). Instead, the new flick will settle on a standalone plot, which will not only please old fans but also the new fans that Carter is trying to hook into the movie.

... Gillian Anderson!

Yup, the X-Files star will host the new and improved version of Masterpiece Theatre when it debuts on PBS on January 13. The show is going to be split into three different versions in 2008. Anderson will host the Masterpiece Classics, which will feature new adaptations of classic novels and stories, and then, in the summer, a new host will be at the helm of Masterpiece Mystery, the new name of the Mystery! series. In the fall, we'll have Masterpiece Contemporary, which will be modern novels and stories filmed for the small screen.

Anderson is also about to start film the new X-Files movie, along with David Duchovny, Amanda Peet, and Billy Connolly.

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.

Character: Eugene Tooms
Show: The X-Files
Episodes: "Squeeze", "Tooms"

Eugene Tooms is, hands down, the scariest monster I've ever seen on television (including my fear of some Muppets). He showed up twice during the first season of The X-Files, in episodes called "Squeeze" and "Tooms". He was a freak show who was more than 100 years old. He went into a long hibernation every 30 years after eating five human livers. Tooms had evolved so that he could lengthen his body and squeeze himself into the smallest of places, such as a toilet or an air vent. Part of what scared me about him was that he could easily bypass typical safety features in your home!

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]