Just a quick update on "Hollywood A.D.": "The Hollywood producer/writer is Skinner's old college friend. His name is Federman. He follows Mulder and Scully around on the Lazarus Bowl case and basically annoys them." And: "Minnie Driver, David Alan Grier, and Chris Carter [have cameos]. Look for a clever bit with [DD's] stand-in/photo double Steve." That's it for now!

TXF was nominated for the 1999 International Horror Guild Awards, plus Cheri Montesanto-Medcalf, Kevin Westmore, and LaVerne Basham won the First Annual Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards in the Best Period Makeup--Television (For a Single Episode of a Regular Series--Sitcom, Drama or Daytime) category for "Triangle." Check out these two excerpts: "At Wednesday's Publicists Guild luncheon, honoree Chris Carter looked at his award and deadpanned, 'This did not come out of no dumpster,' a reference to last week's heist." And: "Writer-producer Chris Carter quipped at the annual Publicists Guild luncheon that the future of young Cuban refugee Elián Gonzalez is more certain than whether The X-Files will return for an eighth season. Carter received the guild's TV showmanship award from presenter Gillian Anderson of the X-Files cast." That's our man! Some "Hollywood A.D." news: The (I think) entire script of the episode is online here. I didn't read it, but if you just can't wait.... There is also a rumor that Minnie Driver, David Duchovny's Return to Me co-star, is in it. And in Fox news, Doug Herzog quit his job. Sandy Grushow will take over it until the summer. Hallelujah, the En Ami is gone!

Check this out: "The X-Files Official Fan Club continues its tradition of offering only the best in new officially licensed X-Files merchandise. Check out our full line including four brand-new scripts. And be sure to check back for a new line of photos, coming Friday, March 31." I will continue with merchandise news...the 2001 X-Files calendars are shipping next month to stores, so that means they won't be released too long from now. Time flies, doesn't it? The season 1 DVD box set release date has in fact been moved from May 16 to May 9. Also I have a picture of the U.K. Special Edition Limited First Edition movie video, widescreen version here. The "Closure" video that I said was coming out will be released in the U.K. on April 24, and before April 8 in Australia (the video will include the 4th out of 9 puzzle cards). Thanks to David Yeldon for the previous 3 things! Finally, click here for a Fox-authorized auction run by Legends in Time of X-Files props. The page includes an interesting statistic: since The X-Files began, reported UFO sightings have gone up 60 percent. Wow.

DD on "Hollywood A.D.": "A friend of mine, an actual FBI agent, is trying to make movies and sell stories, really good stories. I just thought, what if Skinner was up to that? I wanted to do the difference between the actual X-file, which of course is already Hollywoodized because of the show. I had the actual frame I needed to find an X-file that I could hang it on." I am officially looking forward to this episode. Oh yeah, Téa Leoni does in fact wear a red wig. This is on "all things": "Fans of the relationship between Scully and Mulder are in for a tasty treat. There's even a visit of sorts from God." Wow.... Plus, we'll get even more Skinner this season in "Brand X." And John Shiban had something to say on the finale: "There is a plan for [the conclusion of the series]. We always felt it would take at least two episodes to do it--if not more. We really want to do it right."

Rob Bowman is a busy man: He will start filming the spinoff pilot on Monday, he's still working on Riptide, and now he's signing to direct and co-write (with David Goyer who wrote Blade) Generation Ship for Columbia Pictures. It is based on Harlan Ellison and Edward Bryant's book Phoenix Without Ashes. Production will start at the end of this year, and the film will be produced by Don Murphy. Anyway, DVD news: the season 2 box set will come out on November 5! Thanks Jason! Speaking of which, David Yeldon has given me a picture of the U.K. movie DVD disc, plus a detailed comparison of that DVD and the U.S. version: "Menus: Region 1 is in 16:9 letterbox; Region 2 is in 16:9 anamorphic. The music on the R2 is the same but played noticeably (and laughably) quicker. I have no idea why! The root menu's text is farther to the right on the R2, and is the same except it says 'Play Movie' instead of just 'Play.' All the graphics, fonts, layout, and animations are the same as the R1 except this, and what is listed here. Sound: R1 has English 5.1 and 2.0, French 2.0, and the commentary. R2 has just English 5.1 and the commentary. Subtitles: R1 has English and Spanish. R2 has English, no Spanish, but does have Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, and Icelandic, as I reported before. Extras: Just the original trailer A (no submenu for trailers, therefore). It is the American version, rather than the U.K. version (which had the U.K. date at the end) presumably as it is a pan-European disc rather than a U.K.-specific one. (U.K. versions of trailers A and C were previously on U.K. Files 10-12.) All other extras are present (but as I rented it, I have no way of checking if the booklet is there--someone else will have to clarify that). Picture: R1 is letterboxed 2.35:1 at 5.87 Mbps average, peaking around 8.3 Mbps. R2 is anamorphic 2.40:1 at 6.34 Mbps average, peaking around 8.8 Mbps. The difference (if indeed there is one) in the two picture sizes is so miniscule I didn't even bother to see if it was noticeable. The R2 bitrate is higher as more picture info is being stored (it's anamorphic), but in my humble, and entirely subjective, opinion I think the R1 version looks better (the blacks looked a bit dodgy on R2). By the shapes of the bitrate graphs, it is obvious they are two completely different transfers. Length: R1 is 1:57:40, R2 is 2:02:28. This is completely normal and the whole film is present (including the extra Mulder/WMM bit). Due to some standards conversion, all films released over here are 25/24 times the speed of the American version. It's something to do with PAL being 25 fps and cinema being 24 fps, but I can't see how that ties in with the U.S. version being the original length.... Disc content: 7.23 Gb for R1, 6.88 Gb for R2. Both are RSDL discs. Layer switch is at 40:17 on R1, but 41:56 on R2 (as the guard enters the morgue). Save the most interesting for last: the R2 version has DVD-ROM content. Just for the sake of it, apparently, as all it is is the PC Friendly software (the same as the one on The Matrix). On startup this gives you three options: play the movie, go to www.x-files.com, and technical support (another Internet link). It also puts some Fox links in PC Friendly's channel bar. (Hardly worth bothering about, really!)" Man that is cool--thanks David!

Two more pictures: I found another banner ad for the official site, and of course, the print ad for "En Ami"--the coolest in a long time. Finally: "The Saturn Awards nominations were announced at SciFi.Com this morning with The X-Files being nominated in the category of Best Network Television Series, and GA receiving a nomination in the Best Actress on Television grouping. DD did not receive a nomination this year." That's just crap--GA always is great, but DD has basically been stealing the show this season I think.

What's "Brand X" about? "It's about a conspiracy at Morley Tobacco Company. It starts with someone who was going to blow the whistle on them dying a horrible death. It has a lot of Skinner in it and evil tobacco beetles. When you get a cough in this episode it is a NASTY cough. Oh, and Mulder is in the hospital at one point." Plus more info on the finale episode(s) from Dennis X: Three main questions will be addressed: Are we alone in the universe? Who is God? And where are we from? I think we know the answer to the first, at least! Krycek and Marita at least will be in the finale episode(s). Plus: "Moreover let's not forget about Samantha; it should not remain unmentioned that as far as I'm concerned CC presents information/facts about stuff that remained untouched for quite a long time now and as far as I can see 7X22 seems to piss off not just a few X-Philes but lots and lots of X-Philes out there...but that's another story anyways!!" Now here is word-for-word what DD actually said about the Oliver Stone character in "Hollywood A.D." This includes more info than what I previously posted: "It's a disaffected Yippie from the '60s who's taken to forging religious documents and extorting money from the Church. The guy thinks that in order to become an expert in forging he's got to immerse himself in the life and culture of Jesus Christ, and he somehow transforms himself into Jesus. Being an explosives expert, he then bombs the church where his forgeries are being kept, because now that he's become Jesus he realizes that his forgeries are wrong. There's a scene where Scully hallucinates him on a crucifix. The cross is only three feet high, so you'd see a little three-foot Oliver." BTW Shandling and Leoni play actors, not themselves. Anyway..."En Ami" is French for "As a Friend." Sound it out...it almost sounds like "Enemy"! Plus, Dennis X told me that "Ami" means "Cigarette" in American English as well! Also I have the "Theef" print ad. And from NeAl Schwarz, the previous title of "all things" was actually "all things scully."

NeAl has also sent me some info on the finale episodes that I think may be questionable, but I'll put it here anyway. He maintains that 7X20 is called "Halo" (CC & FS/KM), but has new titles for 7X21 and 7X22 (this contradicts with what Vince said about writing and directing 7X21): "Nemesis: Bis Zur Vergasung" (CC & FS/RB) and "Nemesis: Gammadion" (CC/CC) respectively. Title info: "[The gammadion] is the emblem of the Nazi party...an ancient symbol (used for protection) in the form of a cross, each arm having a limb of identical length projecting from its end at right angles, all in the same direction, usually clockwise, symbolizing the direction of the sun's course. It's been used by various cultures since the Middle Ages...found in almost every part of the world, including Native America (the Navajo [hmm]), Nepal, and the Baltics. It has been used from 1918 as a symbol of anti-Semitism (by the Nazis)." NeAl says that what he previously said was 7X19, "Acid Dreams" by Vince Gilligan, part 3 of the Suzanne Modeski arc, is going to be used in the spinoff series, which would make sense. About the finale episodes...if this is the last season, FS himself said that it would be hard to wrap everything up in a single episode. So there would have to be at least two, but that could work with what Vince said about 7X21. One thing I've heard that would make sense is that 7X20 and 7X22 could be part 1 and 2 of the finale, and would air out of order after 7X21.

Finally some merchandise news. Season 5 is available on Video CD here, on 5 sets of 3 discs each. Inside The X-Files is included in the first set. Nice covers. At that site you can also buy the movie on VCD, and the cover picture there is different than the one I already have, so I guess they're two different versions, probably made in different countries (both are legit; I also have pics up of bootleg versions for comparison). Here's the picture.

Yet more "Hollywood A.D." info is in: "Turns out [DD] wanted to cast Oliver Stone in the episode as a 'disaffected Yippie from the '60s who has taken to forging religious documents and extorting money from the Church'...by immersing himself in the life and culture of Jesus Christ he transforms himself into Jesus and there's a scene where Scully hallucinates him on a three-foot cross." This is going to be weird. Info on "all things": "Scully reunites with a doctor who was once her professor. He had advised her not to join the FBI--not only for professional reasons but for romantic reasons as well. She also meets up with his daughter who blames Scully for the breakup of her parents' marriage." Now I'm going to switch to news on other Ten Thirteen series. There was a ruling in the Harsh Realm suit: "U.S. District Judge John Martin of the Southern District of New York issued a preliminary injunction that requires a new credit be added to the beginning and end of each episode of the series. The new credit must read: 'Inspired by the Harsh Realm Comic Book Series, Created by James D. Hudnall and Andrew Paquette, Published by Harris Publications, Inc.' In addition, the information must also run in close proximity to the credit that says 'Created by Chris Carter.' ...The original Paquette and Hudnall credit was a 'Special Thanks' that ran far from the 'Created by' credit [in the end credits]. That credit was modified as a result of the litigation to 'Inspired by' [in the first airing of 'Inga Fossa' on Fox], but it was still [in the end credits] and did not occupy a full screen." The new credits will be on all the FX airings of the episodes. And, the spinoff pilot will wrap filming on April 7 (I said last update that it starts on March 20).

The waters are muddied--this is from Roda93: "Fox Home Entertainment has not even heard of [Wave 8/X-Files: The TV Series Collection]...and had me send a copy of the [Reel.com] info to them via fax." Hrm. Well it's still available there to pre-order, so I don't know what to say. It looks like it's happening, especially since there's detailed info now on the interview segments for each episode. I think this is the first time that Chris Carter isn't doing them--any of them. For "Leonard Betts," it's Vince Gilligan, Frank Spotnitz, John Shiban, and Kim Manners; "Memento Mori," John Shiban, R.W. Goodwin (able to go to L.A. to film the interviews?), and Frank Spotnitz; "Tempus Fugit" and "Max," Frank Spotnitz, R.W. Goodwin, and Kim Manners (no Rob Bowman?!); "Small Potatoes," Frank Spotnitz, Vince Gilligan, and Kim Manners (no Cliff Bole?!); and "Gethsemane," Frank Spotnitz and R.W. Goodwin. This is from someone who has already seen the interviews: "All the guys look like they just had haircuts, like it's picture week at school. (Kim looks very sharp with the short hair, much as I liked it long.) I thought the comments about TF/Max were the most interesting, mostly about how stunts were done and so on. Kim has a great comment about how he wanted to have the last shot of the crash sequence be the hands of a white man and a black man grasping one another, that he was making a statement with that shot. The famous MM kiss is discussed (rather diplomatically *g*), but not shown. The nearly equally-famous story about the writing credits is not mentioned. There's an interesting comment about SP, that Gillian was concerned it would look like if you got a few drinks in Scully, she would 'go the extra mile.'" On the topic of merchandise.... I mentioned before that the Australian movie DVD would come out on March 22 (which is still confirmed), but apparently it doesn't include the booklet that we got in the U.S. That would mean that the U.K. people didn't get the booklet either. And speaking of Australia, season 7 premieres there March 8 on Network Ten.

Just a few more tidbits today: "[The Australian magazine] New Weekly has a small bit on Gillian Anderson desperately wanting a role in the next Star Trek movie." Star Trek or Star Wars? "In the 21st annual Young Artist Awards, Jeffrey Schoeny has been nominated in the Best Performance in a TV Drama Series--Young Actor Age Ten and Under category for his role in 'Trevor.' Brittany Tiplady from Millennium is also nominated for an award. It's her fourth." "Fox hung tough as [FPS] (15.31 million [viewers], 8.3/17) won its hour over the mini competition." Finally, from the newsgroup: "DD is on the cover of Movieline this month. [He says that] his lawsuit against Fox has completely destroyed his personal relationship with Carter and there is no way he will return for an 8th season." Guess I'll have to see the article for myself.

David Duchovny said this in a recent article, bringing back some old rumors: "[Chris Carter and I] wrote a script together that has been shot ['Amor Fati'] and I have written another one with him." Hrm. Info on 7X15: "A lot of filming [was being] done at a cabin that is CSM's and a federal facility." "Chimera": "This seems to be an Easter episode, with a monster that looks a lot like Marilyn Manson! It involves a woman who turns into this monster. Mulder has a fight scene. There may be a good scene with Mulder and Scully where she asks him if he's as miserable as she is." So we've had 3 Christmas episodes, New Year's and Valentine's Day episodes, a Scully's birthday episode, now an Easter episode, but no Halloween episode??! "The Sixth Extinction" was originally going to air on October 31, but that hardly counts! Now, I've got a lot more info on the spinoff pilot. Rob Bowman is directing it, and filming starts on March 20. More: "The new female is named Yves Adele Harlow and is described as 'every teenage boy's fantasy' (which means our boys should be drooling in .02 seconds or less). She is a hacker for hire, a master at electronic espionage. Our boys won't know what hit them. ...The pilot is still in the draft stage but it's pretty good. Right now it looks like we'll get to see a little more about Byers (the one who looks the most like a straight in the group). We meet his father who works for the Air Force and thinks that his son is wasting his time. As for the boys, we actually get to see what it is they do when they're not saving Mulder and Scully's bacon on a regular basis. Watching TXF it's easy to forget that these guys actually publish something. If this makes it to a series, I think the fans will be pleasantly surprised even though there isn't a pretty-boy lead."

Well that sounds pretty good! I was worried before that the spinoff would make TXF seem like a joke, or make people think that it was stupid or a sellout, or that the spinoff would fail and make TXF and the Lone Gunmen and Chris Carter look bad. Or, people would expect it to be like TXF and be disappointed when it's not. Well, I'm sure they'll handle it the right way. Anyway, the official site updated. In the episode listing, the link to the 7X04 summary is no longer there for some reason, but the page is still there. You can see it if you take the address for the summary of another episode and change the episode number in the address to 4. Plus, the quote that the official site put up for FPS was changed at the last minute in the script--Scully actually has a different line at the end and doesn't say "Women do run the world." She says something like "That's why men like to shoot the crap out of stuff" instead. The site also put up posters and computer images from the episode, which is really neat for wallpaper. Finally, I just wanted to mention that there's an ad running during TXF recently that really looks like it was made to imitate the cave scene at the beginning of FTF. There really is a similarity...I wonder if it's more than coincidence (X-Files music starts in the background).

"After almost a year of speculation about the future of The X-Files, Gillian Anderson confirms that Fox Mulder and Dana Scully will film their final episodes in the next few weeks. Gillian Anderson has broken her silence and revealed that The X-Files is over. According to the red-headed actress who plays Dana Scully in the Network Ten series, the last episode will be taped in April, at the end of its seventh season. 'We will not be here for an eighth season, so it's a matter of mourning the end, and that will be very emotional,' Gillian tells [Australian] TV Week." WAIT: I am NOT assuming that there will be no 8th season based on an Australian article; there has still been nothing official from Fox, and no stories like this in the U.S. This could simply be a matter of quotes being twisted. But it does look slim for an 8th season. And: "'I understand that Fox and Chris are both still in interested in doing films, and to me that sounds like a wonderful way for us to go on,' Gillian says. 'I also heard they may do an animated series although I don't know how interested Chris is in that idea. But I think it would be great to have a Mulder-and-Scully animated series and then we could come in once in a while and just do the voices!'" I think we've heard this before.

Don't count on Harsh Realm going into production again. Scott Bairstow was cast into Semper Fi, the show which Michael Watkins is now working on. And that's probably filming in L.A. not Vancouver. Check this out, about FPS: "Xybernaut Corporation, the leader in wearable computing solutions, announced that Fox Network's hit sci-fi television show, The X-Files, will be running an episode that features its product, the Mobile Assistant IV (MA IV)." So those head things are real! Anyway..."X-Cops" did very well in the ratings: 16.56 million viewers, placing it 17th, as opposed to 16.57 million viewers (12th place) for "One Son" last year. Thanks Roda93! The season 7 premiere will air in Latin America on March 15, and March 23 in Denmark. I previously said that March 19 is the date for the U.K. showing of the premiere on Sky One. OK...the official site updated a while ago, adding a "Video Xtras" section under X-Philes. If you sort by Episode, there are 3 Chris Carter videos and 4 Lone Gunmen videos of them talking about "First Person Shooter." Plus you can look through Chris Carter's monitor during the filming of a scene in FPS. David Duchovny also has a video in which he talks about the snakes in "Signs and Wonders." Sort by Crew Member and you also get 4 more videos of Chris Carter, one of which is the now-famous quote about pleasing the shippers this season. Finally, sort by Character/Cast Member and you get 2 videos of Gillian Anderson and one more of David Duchovny. The section is missing CC's video where he talks about "X-Cops" and GA's Christmas message. Other than those, all the older videos are also archived there; I just mentioned the new ones.

Glen Morgan and James Wong's show The Others (also executive produced by Steven Spielberg) is apparently not doing very well at all--getting even worse ratings now than Harsh Realm. So this definitely says something about TXF, and the fact that no other paranormal show seems to be able to make it! That also seems to make a bad omen for the spinoff. On a brighter note, GA and DD were nominated for Nickelodeon's 13th Annual Kids' Choice Awards in the Favorite TV Friends category. And click here for info on the X-Philes documentary--it got into the 10th annual San Jose Film Festival, going on now. BTW, The Squirrel's Nest is updating again--not regularly, but updating--with mostly multimedia. Anyway...TV Guide gave "X-Cops" a cheer. Plus David Duchovny (and Moby too) presented at the Grammys. DD presented with Jennifer Lopez...you probably heard about that. Thanks LVxPhile! Finally, I will end with two bits of merchandise news. About the Flukeman prototype figure: "For now, this figure will only be available in an exclusive collector's box to members of the McFarlane Toys Collector's Club." Thanks to The X-Files Merchant! Finally, I heard a rumor, thanks to David Yeldon, that the season 1 DVD set will come out on Region 2 DVD (most of Europe including the U.K., etc.) on June 5.

The official site updated. 7X16 is called "Chimera." "Hollywood A.D." starts filming on March 6, and 7X19 starts on March 16. "Hungry" is being rerun on the 26th. There are two banners being displayed to promote the February Sweepstakes--here and here. The site also said that Michael Watkins has left TXF to direct the pilot of Steven Spielberg's Semper Fi. I previously said that he will be an executive producer of the show, which is still true. Here's some info on "Hollywood A.D.," which looks to be very interesting. Comedian Garry Shandling plays Mulder and Duchovny's real-life wife Leoni plays Scully in a documentary about the X-files being made within the episode, and Mulder oversees the production (do the actors play themselves or other actors in the episode??): "I'm doing an X-Files episode in which I get to make out with Téa Leoni, David Duchovny's wife--I think you see my ploy," says Shandling, who claims that work usually interferes with his romantic life. "I'm doing that in the middle of March, in which I play the Mulder character in an X-Files film version, and David comes to see if it's being depicted accurately. I play him, and Téa Leoni plays Scully, and I make out with her. They're all good friends of mine." And I got more info on the spinoff: If there is no 8th season, the pilot will air in September, starting the series. If there is an 8th season, the spinoff will start out as a mid-season replacement sometime in January. 8TH SEASON DECISION IMMINENT THIS WEEK! BTW the spinoff is officially still untitled and the pilot is being written by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban, and Frank Spotnitz, without Chris Carter.

Check out this CC quote: "This is a year that we are going to explore Mulder and Scully's relationship. I'm not going to say how. But it is going to be pushed. It's going to be developed. And I think by season's end, there are certain fans who have been harrassing me for several years now who might get a little of what they've been whining about for so long." Ahh! More teasing!! I have some more info on "Chimera" too: "Mulder gets kissed all right. With his shirt off. As he's about to take a bath. In someone's home. I can hear the howls of shippers already. Scully is meanwhile on assignment elsewhere, watching the entrance to a strip club. Bored out of her mind. Calling Mulder every so often to complain, while he's having a good time investigating his X-file." BTW David Amann is still writing another episode this season--so it's a good bet that Jeffrey Bell has another in the works too. Award time: "Bill Roe received American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Awards for the second consecutive year in the television competition.... Roe won the Episodic competition for The X-Files/'Agua Mala' which airs on Fox. Roe won in 1999 for The X-Files ['Drive']."

Also some pretty big merchandise-related news: Wave 8, a.k.a. X-Files: The TV Series Collection (the new name), is coming out on May 9. This is probably where the rumor that the season 1 DVD set is coming out on May 9 came from. It's still set for May 16. Anyway, there are 3 videos as usual, two episodes on each video: "Leonard Betts"/"Memento Mori," "Tempus Fugit"/"Max," and "Small Potatoes"/"Gethsemane." Speaking of the DVD set, the latest is that each season will be released on DVD 6 months after the previous set. Thanks Jason! Finally, the Official Fan Club site has been revamped as promised! There is an episode guide with behind-the-scenes info from previous issues, selected articles are online, plus there is a fan forum, bios, news on TXF, and more. No new items yet though. Check it out!