X-Files creator Chris Carter calls Vancouver 'perfect place' to film reboot

Chris Carter, creator of the X-Files, can't wait to start shooting the series reboot in Vancouver this summer.

The paranormal sci-fi series, which always insisted that "the truth is out there," will get a six-episode run on TV next year, Fox announced last month.

Stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, who played FBI agents Mulder and Scully, will reprise their roles.

Carter will be in Vancouver on Wednesday as the special guest for an industry celebration of National Canadian Film Day, organized by the Vancouver International Film Festival.

He spoke to The Early Edition's Rick Cluff ahead of that event. What follows is an edited and condensed version of that conversation.

It's been 13 years since the X-Files was on TV ... where will we find Mulder and Scully when they come back to the screen again?

We're going to be honest to the passage of time, to what we believe has happened to the characters in the interim.

Have you got the story lines sketched out yet?

Yes, actually.

Can you share some with us?

[Laughs.] That would be completely unfair to the fans who are hoping to be surprised.

Part of your legacy was that it was the first major episodic television series to be shot in Vancouver.  It went through growing pains because the crews didn't have the experience. We look now at the movie industry in Vancouver, which is thriving, and you had a lot to do with that. How do you respond to that?

I don't know. I actually first came to Vancouver when my wife was doing a Disney Sunday movie in 1986. I saw this amazingly beautiful place. I remember how beautiful the forests were.

When we were preparing to do the X-Files pilot, we were preparing to do it in Los Angeles, but we couldn't find a good forest within the zone [the area you can work in without having to pay a premium]. So I said, let's go to Vancouver, and it was kind of a no-brainer.

I found a workforce that gave you everything they had. If there were people who were a little green, I was green myself, so we grew up together.

Many producers, many directors, since, have come to shoot in Vancouver, knowing the crews here gained their experience through the X-Files, which was a huge success.

You gotta start somewhere. I was lucky enough to come to Vancouver at exactly the right time. David Duchovny [who plays Mulder] says it was two weeks that became five years for us.

Is he happy to be coming back? When he left, he wasn't thrilled about the weather in Vancouver.

I think he made a joke and people took it seriously. Is he happy to come back? Yes. We all love Vancouver and that's the honest truth.

Why did you decide to come back to Vancouver and not film in L.A?

Vancouver is actually the perfect place to make a show like the X-Files. It gives you what I call free atmosphere. The funny thing is, we're coming back now, and we'll be shooting all summer long. And being so far north, we're not going to have as much darkness as we like, to shoot the moodier stuff we want to shoot.

What do you miss most about Vancouver?

The natural environment is right at your back door. When I finished the show, I joined up with the Alpine Club of Canada and did some mountain climbing. When I think of Vancouver, I think of a place that's set in such easy, accessible beauty.

To listen to the full interview with Chris Carter, listen to the audio labelled X-Files creator Chris Carter.