LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The truth is finally out there about the new "X-Files" movie title.


The second big-screen spinoff of the paranormal TV adventure will be called "The X-Files: I Want to Believe," said Chris Carter, the series' creator and the movie's director and co-writer.

Distributor 20th Century Fox signed off on the title Wednesday.

The title is a familiar phrase for fans of the series that starred David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents chasing after aliens and supernatural happenings. "I Want to Believe" was the slogan on a poster Duchovny's UFO-obsessed agent Fox Mulder had hanging in the cluttered basement office where he and Anderson's Dana Scully worked.

"It's a natural title," Carter said Tuesday during a break from editing the film. "It's a story that involves the difficulties in mediating faith and science. 'I Want to Believe.' It really does suggest Mulder's struggle with his faith."

"I Want to Believe" comes 10 years after the first film and six years after the finale of the series, whose opening credits for much of its nine-year run featured the catch-phrase "the truth is out there."

Due in theaters July 25, the movie will not deal with aliens or the intricate mythology about interaction between humans and extraterrestrials that the show built up over the years, Carter said.


Instead, it casts Mulder and Scully into a standalone, earthbound story aimed at serious "X-Files" fans as well as newcomers, he said.

"It has struck me over the last several years talking to college-age kids that a lot of them really don't know the show or haven't seen it," Carter said. "If you're 20 years old now, the show started when you were 4. It was probably too scary for you, or your parents wouldn't let you watch it. So there's a whole new audience that might have liked the show. This was made to, I would call it, satisfy everyone."

Hardcore fans need not worry that the movie will be going back to square one, though, Carter said. The movie will be true to the spirit of the show and everything Mulder and Scully went through, he said.

"The reason we're even making the movie is for the rabid fans, so we don't want to insult them by having to take them back through the concept again," Carter said.
Carter said he settled on "I Want to Believe" from the time he and co-writer Frank Spotnitz started on the screenplay. It took so long to go public with it because studio executives wanted to make sure it was a marketable title, he said.

The filmmakers have kept the story tightly under wraps to prevent plot spoilers from leaking on the Internet, a phenomenon that barely existed when the first movie came out in 1998.
"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."

I’m standing inside Mulder’s office staring up at the pencils stuck up in the ceiling tile. Clutter is all around. Newspaper clippings, post-it notes, mysterious photographs are stuck on the wall, piled on the desk and stuffed in files. As you might expect, it’s very Mulder-esque. This is Mulder’s office. I’m here doing my own investigation. It’s as mysterious and cryptic as the best episodes of “The X-Files” set. My assignment: find out what the hell is going on on the set of the X-FILES sequel.


Behind an abandoned amusement park in Vancouver sits a nondescript building that looks like it could be assembling car parts or baking cookies. It’s only given away by a small orange sign with the words “Done One” in black letters. To the random passerby, it’s nothing more than gibberish. But for me, it’s my first clue: we’re here.

I grab my bag and try to blend in. There is a thick fog floating around the room. Rocks covered with snow. Large evergreen trees. And in the back lies a small cabin sitting quietly. The windows glow with a soft light that travels in the dense air. A large porch wraps around the front of the house and a rustic screen door hangs in the middle. This is a place that is trying not to be found, trying to blend in with wilderness. This is my destination. This is Fox Mulder’s home.

As I make my way to the door, the porch steps creak loudly like some old-fashioned alarm system. Intruder alert. Intruder alert. I pull back the screen and take a step inside. Mulder’s living room. Or is it a photo from an Eddie Bauer catalog? The only giveaway is the familiar fish tank against a back wall with a frogman floating inside I know I’ve seen before. Where have I seen that frogman? Where?... That’s when I see it. Out of the corner of my eye, I look up, past the steps and through a crack of a nearly closed door. On the wall in bold white letters I can read: “I Want To Believe.” Welcome home Mulder.

A tour of Mulder's house gives us everything and nothing. Spotnitz guides me up the porch and through the front door into a warm, earth tone-driven living room. Issues of Scientific American are neatly scattered about. Framed black and white photographs are hung on the wall. Mulder's digs are nice...and a step up from the apartment we're accustomed to seeing him in. The cleanliness is befitting of a woman, however.

"You'll notice the brown railing," Spotnitz points out. "There was one just like that in his apartment." The reference is a bit over my head but those fans with the photographic memories will be pleased to hear there is plenty of continuity they'll appreciate. Take the gold fish for instance. "The tank is bigger than the one in the show." Well, sure, it only seems right they get a big pad if Mulder is moving up. Oh, and look at that, there's the scuba diver at the bottom of the tank.

"Mulder's been living here since 2002," Spotnitz adds. "Come on in here..."

Shock: How excited were you to slip back into the Mulder persona after all of these years?
Duchovny: I was very excited to do it, then as the date to do it approached I started to wonder if I needed to work more. To get back into that. So, there was a certain amount of fear, because maybe I haven't changed... I think what happened was that my facility, my range or interests might've changed, so this character might've represented a narrower box than I've been working in the last four or five years since I left. I had to bring what I've learned the last four or five years into this box. Last night, they have internet access here, and somebody pulled up one of these homages to the show with this romantic song [cut to] all of these kisses between Gillian and I. That was actually really helpful to feel the show again, because it was this overview and very romantic. It was like, Oh, I can watch that, and it would help me get into work. Whoever put that together, I thank them.