A Third 'X-Files' Movie? David Duchovny Approves

Should a third "X-Files" movie happen? Sure, franchise icon David Duchovny told Collider recently.

Now, someone just needs to pass this memo along to 20th Century Fox.

That's Duchovny's story, anyway, and he's sticking to it. Agent Fox Mulder himself said that all things considered, he's perplexed as to why the studio hasn't shown more enthusiasm. For one thing, his fellow face of the franchise Gillian Anderson (Agent Dana Scully) said last year that a third movie was absolutely a possibility.

It's all the more a head-scratcher to Duchovny personally because, for Fox, it's a franchise that's always been right in the studio's backyard.

"I would love to do another film, or more. I think we're all game for it. I know I'm kind of perplexed that Fox isn't more [enthusiastic]," he said, before making a somewhat misplaced comparison. "Here's a homegrown property that you don't have to go buy, like f**kin' 'Green Lantern' or something, to make it. Here you've got an actual action franchise that's your own. It's weird to me, but I'm not an executive.

"I don't know if they made 'Green Lantern' either [NOTE: To clarify, that would be Warner Bros. behind the DC Universe adaptation, though his point comes though], but I'm just using that as an example of, 'Why make that film? Why not make a homegrown franchise that is excellent, and that has proven to be excellent and interesting?' I don't get it, but that's not my business," he added.

His misplacing of franchises aside, Duchovny has a point. The first "X-Files" film, 1998's "The X-Files: Fight The Future," arrived a little more than halfway through the show's life and proved a fair financial success - $189.2 million grossed on a $66-million budget. More surprisingly, "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" arrived in 2008 - six years after "The X-Files" ended its ninth and final season on FOX - and itself made $68.4 million on a $30-million budget.

That's not to say that Duchovny feels that "I Want To Believe" had no room for improvement.

"Unfortunately, with the last one, they didn't spend the money to compete in a summer fashion, and they brought it out in the summer," Duchovny said. "It should be a summer film. It should be an action film. But, the last one we made was not. The last one we made was a dark, contemplative, small $25-million film. It was basically an independent film. When you come out against ["The Dark Knight"], it's not going to happen. You're not going to be sold as an independent film, and you're not going to compete against Batman with $25 million."