X-Files 3 Movie Update

When The X-Files: I Want To Believe bombed this past summer at the U.S. box office it looked like the end of the sci-fi franchise. However the film has grossed a pretty decent $70 million worldwide off of a modest budget of $30 million, so it is firmly in the column marked profit. All this and the DVD sales haven’t even been factored in yet.

Now Fox head Tim Rothman has stated that he’d be up for a third film in the series, and all that it will take for the film to get a green light is commitment from Chris Carter, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.

When asked by IESB about the film Rothman said:

“It’s really up to Chris, David, and Gillian.”

“It wasn’t a matter of the money, that was the film that Chris wanted to do. He was determined to do a stand alone film, a film that wasn’t dependent upon the mythology. His interest in making the movie, was in the characters and in their relationship, not the mythology.”

Producer and Co-Writer of I Want To Believe Frank Spotnitz seemed a bit surprised by the news. On his blog he wrote:

“I was encouraged to read Tom Rothman’s remarks as well. I anticipated the studio would wait until after the release of the DVD to make any decision regarding a third movie, but I will let you know if we end up having any news before then.”

So there you have it. The future seems bright for Mulder and Scully. While I Want To Believe may not have been a huge commercial and critical success it has generated enough coin to get a third film off the ground.

I recently re-watched the film and I have to say that it works better on the small screen, and it does play more like an episode of the series. Which isn’t really a bad thing!

During the publicity rounds for the last film all the principals seemed very interested in returning for a fourth installment, so there would appear to be a very good chance that Mulder and Scully will return.

More when we get it.

Sources: IESB and Biglight.com