Conception and pre-production 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. 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. Carter gave 90 pages of the screenplay to Fox which received it well. While not officially
greenlighted, he got a budget from Fox and began to make plans for production. 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. During production, the filmmakers went to great lengths to preserve secrecy, including printing the script on red paper to prevent photocopying, 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.
Writing and casting 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. 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." 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. 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." Principal photography for the film started on June 16, 1997.
Music Two soundtracks,
The X-Files: Original Motion Picture Score 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.
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." ==Release==