Title : The truth is still out there

Date : 23 July 2008 1324 hrs (SST) URL : Channelnewsasia.com

SINGAPORE : The whole truth still isn’t quite out there, but X-Files creator Chris Carter still wants us to believe. Even if he’s not giving us anything to go on.

X-Files: I Want to Believe opens in cinemas on Thursday, in a shroud of secrecy with not even so much of a whisper of an advance preview for the press. Is the hush-hush nature of the film’s arrival a clever ploy to drum up interest a la The Dark Knight? Or is it simply a conspiracy to hide a less-than-solid film a la The Happening?

The sequel to X-Files: Fight the Future arrives in cinemas here 10 years after the first film and six years after the cult series wrapped up, leaving legions of die-hard “X-Philes” all across the globe dying to know what would become of their beloved tag-team of Mulder and Scully, played by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.

But don’t hold your breath. The story for the sequel has not been leaked, in any shape or form. “We went to almost comical lengths to keep the story a secret,” Carter said. “That included allowing only the key crew members to read the script, and they had to read it in a room that had video cameras trained on them. It was a new experience.”

However, on location on the set of Fox Mulder’s house in a studio in Vancouver, the sequel’s writer, producer and director did give a tiny hint. “I would say we are trying to scare the pants off you, like areally good episode of the X-Files. It is not a mythology episode, but it owes to the characters’ lives, what they have been through, and their relationship,” he said.

“I think of presenting the characters and the idea of X-Files to a whole new audience. It is funny because I had five years to sort of step back from this, and what I realised is there are kids in college who now say, ‘Oh yes, my parents used to watch the X-Files’ or ‘I never watched the X-Files, I was too young, my parents wouldn’t let me watch it’.”

But that doesn’t mean the faithful old fan boy of the series has been forgotten. Carter knows it’s all about the fans and says they were one of the biggest reasons to make the sequel. “The fans said they wanted it, people took out billboards and ads, and you could feel people out there ... and on the Internet.”

So, satiate our most pressing questions. Is the movie linked to the series? Is Scully’s child part alien? Will we ever see David Duchovny in that infamous red Speedo again?

“I think the first three seasons really helped set the foundation for the rest of the show. "So, you will probably see connections ...” said Carter. “As for the last question, I wouldn’t count that out,” he added, with a laugh. - TODAY/sh