The X-Files Forums

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=industryNews&storyID=2006-01-17T074903Z_01_N17276825_RTRIDST_0_INDUSTRY-XFILES-DC.XML&archived=False

Yea I dunno what's going on but he's sueing FOX.. What does this mean for X-Files 2

Just read it here:


Chris Carter says Fox wormed out of lucrative deal they promised him.



The truth is in court. The creator of The X-Files has sued 20th Century Fox Television for breach of contract, contractual interference, and other claims over payments allegedly owed to him from the hit television series.

Chris Carter accuses the studio of reneging on terms of the deal because they were found to be "too favorable" to him, according to the lawsuit, filed in December in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Carter brought the case through his production company, Ten Thirteen, and is seeking unspecified damages.

The suit was filed by attorney Stanton "Larry" Stein, who represented The X-Files star David Duchovny during a 1999 battle in which the actor fought for a higher share of profits from the show's lucrative syndication deals.

In the new suit, Carter alleges that when 20th's network sibling, Fox Broadcasting Co., wanted the show to return for a sixth and seventh season, he agreed to do so through a 1998 agreement that gave him a "profit guarantee."

When it came time to negotiate a ninth season, Carter said he urged the studio to cancel its existing domestic cable deal for The X-Files repeat rights with their sibling FX network and pursue a new one with other networks. Carter said he also negotiated for a "cable advance" equal to 25 percent of the gross license fee paid to 20th in excess of $300,000 per episode.

Carter said that in 2001, 20th Century Fox TV asked him to reduce the cable advance because it "would result, in their view, in too large a benefit to plaintiff, and too small a benefit to Fox Television." Carter refused to change the terms, according to the complaint.

Carter accuses the studio of breaching its agreement by refusing to pay the original profit agreement or the subsequent cable advance.

20th went ahead and canceled the agreement with FX and entered into a new one with USA Network and TNT. It is alleged that Fox insisted that the old cable agreement was not "terminated," but merely "assigned" to the other networks.

That's why there's no movie........not because he wants to direct ( I have no idea where that rumour, which seems to be everywhere came from) but because he is suing them.

CRAP! At this rate there'll probably never be a film.

So, wait, can someone sum that up for me?

They are going through courts because of the syndication for some reason. Either he isn't getting money from Fox he was promised or something like that. The movie probably won't get started till this is overwith.

Look we can so make this movie ourselves, I think I have already said this but I have windows media maker all we need is David and Gillian and psh we can get them no problem and start filming the sweetest movie ever. All of you will be on the crew cause we need to make this a team effort so screw Chris Carter, we have great ideas and we just need to put them together and get this done!

Further proof that the actors might become busy or simply disinterested with revisiting this chapter in their lives if the movie's not made soon? Check out this interview between CNN and Gillian Anderson, it was posted on another forum titled "Interview on CNN w/Gillian!":

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/20/apontv.gillian.anderson.ap/index.html

I wish they'd make an XFiles movie without the baggage of the disinterested people who had a negative impact on the last few seasons. No Mulder, no Scully. People might think this blasphemous, but that is what I think. I loved them in the XFiles, but you could see that their hearts were not in it - the last three years for Mulder. Dogget and Reyes on the other hand...

Here's how the New York Times covered the lawsuit in today's edition (1/23/06):

"The final episode of "The X-Files" was broadcast almost four years ago, as the F.B.I. agents Mulder and Scully stopped searching for the truth. Now the show's creator is searching for more money. Chris Carter, the creator and executive producer of "The X-Files," which ran from 1993 to 2002, filed a lawsuit Dec. 30 claiming that 20th Century Fox Television, a division of the News Corporation, failed to honor an agreement to share profits from syndication rights to the series. The lawsuit was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

"The X-Files" first appeared in syndication on FX Network, a cable affiliate of Fox. In a 2001 agreement, Mr. Carter recommended that Fox terminate its deal with FX and begin a "second cycle" contract with other cable networks, hoping for higher competitive bids. According to Mr. Carter's lawsuit, Fox agreed to give him a 25 percent advance of the gross licensing fees over $300,000 per episode from a second contract, in addition to a profit guarantee that he had already negotiated. In April 2002, the USA Cable division of NBC Universal, a General Electric company, and Turner Entertainment Networks, a Time Warner company, received the syndication rights to all nine seasons of "The X-Files," but Mr. Carter says that he did not receive his cable advance percentage or profit guarantee. According to the lawsuit, Fox claimed that the new syndication deal was a reassignment of the first contract rather than the beginning of a second. Both Fox and Mr. Carter's representatives declined to comment on the lawsuit.

For the many online fans of "The X-Files" who were hoping to see the characters revived in a second feature film, news of the lawsuit was discouraging. It "looks like the second movie won't happen for a while, if at all," wrote one poster on a Livejournal.com community. But "The X-Files" has survived messy lawsuits before. In 1999, David Duchovny, the actor who played Agent Fox Mulder, also filed a lawsuit against the studio, claiming that the FX syndication deal cheated him out of potential royalties and accusing Mr. Carter of accepting compensation for keeping quiet about the deal. The lawsuit was settled out of court in 2000 and Mr. Duchovny returned to the set. And in a coincidence that might have been taken from one of the show's plots, Mr. Duchovny's lawyer, Stanton L. Stein, now represents Mr. Carter - proof that while the truth may be out there, as the show's tagline declared, it never hurts to have a good lawyer."

And here's a direct link to Gillian's interview with CNN (posted by yours truly elsewhere on this forum): http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/20/apontv.gillian.anderson.ap/index.html