Six years have passed since "The X-Files" went off the air after nine seasons; fans agree that it left with a whimper rather than a bang, and ten years have passed since the first and only feature film. So the question of the day is: why a sequel? Why now? But perhaps a better question is "why not?" The fact is that FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) always had vats of chemistry; they arguably outstripped and outranked any other male-female couple in the history of television. Their pairing was perfect: Mulder believed -- or wanted to believe -- in the supernatural while Scully was a scientist, a doctor and a Catholic who believed in God but looked for reasonable, logical explanations in everything. In each episode, the team was called in to investigate some kind of paranormal activity, and they debated and discussed the various possibilities behind each. In the end, hardly anything was ever proved or disproved.

The X-Files: I Want to Believe offers the viewer many mysteries to contemplate -- and only one of them is on-screen; as David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson return to roles and a franchise that last graced our TV screens in 2002 (and was last on the big screen in 1998), your mind swirls around the behind-the-scenes facts as fiercely as it does around the events playing out before your eyes. As reclusive, retired ex-FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully (Duchovny and Anderson) help the FBI with an abduction case, you're not following the plot as such; instead, you're thinking things like Hey, didn't this show get canceled six years ago? Haven't Duchovny and Chris Carter, the star and director of this film, both sued the studio behind it? Who, out in the movie going audience, is really clamoring for this movie? If you're an X-Files fan, is this film's freestanding creepy tale, with no link to the weird and convoluted mythos Carter came up with for the show, going to satisfy whatever itch you may still have for the franchise? And if you're not an X-Files fan, is the idea that this film stands alone enough reason to come to the franchise now?

At this point I'm starting to think that Roland Emmerich must be in possession of some pretty serious blackmail material, because there is no other explanation why accomplished actors are so ready and willing to star in his films. MTV now reports that Woody Harrelson has joined the cast of Emmerich's end of the world thriller, 2012.

The story is based on an ancient Mayan prophecy about the end of the world, but Emmerich's film is no ode to Apocalypto. Instead, John Cusack stars as an academic who opens up a portal to a parallel dimension (don't you hate it when that happens?) in an attempt to contact his double and prevent the apocalyptic prophecy from happening. Harrelson will play what he calls a "modern day Cassandra" who has seen the writing on the wall and has been predicting the disaster for years.

According to Harrelson, he will "play a guy who's been talking for a long time, the whole world thinks he's crazy. But he's been talking that there's gonna be hell to pay for what's been going on ecologically and everything." Perhaps this is Emmerich's idea of a little in-joke considering Harrelson's activist leanings. In the meantime, fans of Harrelson's work will probably prefer his upcoming thriller, Transsiberian. But who am I to judge? I guess sometimes a pay check can be its own reward.

2012 is scheduled to begin filming on location in Vancouver and is slated for release in July, 2009.

When is the news of an actor you really like joining the cast of a high-profile new movie bad news? When you wish that actor were doing other things with his time, that's when. In the case of Thomas McCarthy -- whom you may remember from his masterfully detestable performance as weaselly reporter Scott Templeton in the final season of The Wire -- I wish he were writing and directing another film as brilliant and deeply moving as The Visitor, which at this halfway point is my favorite movie of 2008. I'd even settle for something with the wry, quiet charm of his lovely 2003 debut The Station Agent.

Instead -- ::sigh:: -- he's gone and taken a supporting role in Roland Emmerich's disaster flick 2012, playing Amanda Peet's boyfriend. C'mon, Tom: anyone can do that. Only a handful of people have your behind-the-camera chops. Quit messing around.

I'm being mean, and in this Hollywood Reporter piece McCarthy makes a valiant effort at defending the choice in terms of how working with directors who make different kinds of films helps him with his own work. (The article also mentions that McCarthy moonlights as an uncredited studio script doctor, which I didn't know, and which makes perfect sense given the natural, effortless flow of the films he's written.) Okay fine. But direct something else please.

I was trying to think back to when Amanda Peet had her last high-profile starring role, and I realized: she doesn't do them very often. It's surprising, because she seems so ubiquitous, but it's true -- outside of tiny projects like Nigel Cole's A Lot Like Love, she's mostly done lots and lots of (often significant) supporting parts. She's making a somewhat dubious attempt to remedy that by taking the female lead role opposite John Cusack in Roland Emmerich's sci-fi epic 2012. Peet and Cusack will head a cast that includes Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover (as the President) and Oliver Platt.

2012, which was written by Emmerich with his 10,000 BC writing partner (and, uh, composer) Harald Kloser, posits that the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 will herald the end of the world. Cusack's character must open a portal into a parallel universe and enlist his double in the struggle to prevent said apocalypse. The concept is right up my alley, but Emmerich's films -- especially his and Kloser's 10,000 BC -- are not. On the other hand, the two leads are immensely likable, and John Cusack rarely signs on for a genuine stinker, so we'll see.

The movie is scheduled for a July 10, 2009 release barring an actor's strike. Peet, of course, will also appear in a (surprise!) supporting role in this year's The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Since Fox has refused to reveal virtually any plot details about this summer's The X-Files: I Want to Believe, I've endeavored to translate the still-cryptic but slightly more informative Russian trailer that hit the interwebs yesterday. It would seem that the story will involve a priest named "Father Joe" (that's the Billy Connolly character) who has nightmarish visions of a woman in trouble that he claims come from God. (In other words, this unofficial summary seems to have been on the money.) We also learn that Mulder is roped into the investigation by Amanda Peet's character, Dakota Whitney.

I had fun translating the cheesy dubbing; you hear bits of this dialogue in the American trailer, but a lot of it is new. Check out the translation after the jump.

Word about Nicole Holofcener's still-untitled new film hit back in December, when Catherine Keener, regular Holofcener star, was circling the project. Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that the film has been picked up by Sony Picture Classics, and three players have been added to the roster -- Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, and Rebecca Hall.

Written by Holofcener, the film focuses on a New York couple (Keener and Platt) who own the next-door apartment, which is occupied by a "cantankerous, elderly woman." The pair want to reclaim the apartment, so they're anxiously waiting for the woman to die so they can grab it back. It's not the most charming plan, but certainly understandable in a morbid way. But then their impatience is complicated by the presence of the woman's two granddaughters, who the couple befriend (Peet and Hall) -- it's not so easy to itch for death when the whole scenario becomes more real.

The film is scheduled to begin production in mid-May, with plans to wrap before that looming, potential SAG strike. In the meantime, a number of roles still need to be cast -- namely the grandmother who won't die, and the couple's daughter.

It's kind of a crummy version, but up above is the first official teaser trailer for X-Files 2. Said trailer debuted at Wondercon in San Francisco over the weekend during a panel on the film. While it starts out far away, the camera does zoom in for a fairly good look at the remainder of the first X-Files footage in years. AICN has a pretty good description of the trailer for those who miss some dialogue or what have you (though there's not much, except for Billy Connolly yelling "It's here" and Amanda Peet yelling "Give him room"), but from what I can tell it looks pretty cool.

The majority of the trailer takes place on a snowy field of ice, while a slew of people track something or someone underneath. Connolly races out to a certain spot and begins digging, while we then cut to a pretty quick montage of various shots from the film. The audience at WonderCon went absolutely nutty for this trailer (as you can tell from the screaming in the background), but I will say that it's nice to see Mulder and Scully back again. Look for this trailer to arrive online in a better format next week (we assume). In the meantime, feast your eyes on the preview above. X-Files 2 arrives in theaters on July 25.

I'll just come right out and say it: I think werewolves are dumb. They could be interesting, and I'm sure they once were, but for me they're typically a let down, whether they be the lame werewolves in Wes Craven's Cursed or the badly generated werewolf transformation in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban or even the blood-splattering werewolves of a well-written horror film like Dog Soldiers. Maybe it's because the first werewolves I was familiar with growing up were Michael Jackson in the "Thriller" video and Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf, but whatever the reason, the fact remains that I don't think they're scary and I don't think they're cool.

So, you can imagine how disappointed I was to see JoBlo's new spy shots from the set of "X-Files: Done One" (aka X-Files 2), which feature what looks to be a werewolf mask. I guess there's a chance that thing in the photos could simply be a wolf -- not of the 'were' variety -- and that would be OK. But seeing as this is the paranormal world of X-Files, I'm betting on my first thought being correct.

For other fans of the show, these photos are probably pretty exciting. They're certainly a lot more interesting than that first pic we saw last month, and more intriguing than these simple photos and video of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson from FlynetOnline or these more official shots from ComingSoon.net. Also, with all the secrecy surrounding the plot of the sequel, these photos allow us to speculate a great many things while we wait to hear about the actual plot synopsis. Perhaps one of those new cast members, say Xzibit or Billy Connolly or Amanda Peet turns into a werewolf. Wouldn't that be super neat? Yeah, well you already know I think it would be boring, but I'm trying to be excited for the rest of you.

OK, so this might be nit-picking, but would it have killed someone to make sure that the first set photo released from X-Files 2 was a picture of Agents Mulder and Scully? ComingSoon.net has received the first image from the set and let's just say if you were never that into the show, then this picture is not going to do much for you. But if like me, you were more than a little obsessed with the original TV series that ran for almost ten years, then it's time to let your inner fan-boy run wild. This first photo was taken on location in Vancouver, shows stars David Duchovny and Amanda Peet on set, but other than that, there isn't really much to say. Although, it's nice to see trench coats are making a comeback again.

Starring Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as FBI agents Mulder and Scully, the story has been kept tightly under wraps, although there were some false alarms a little while back. It was only last week that casting had been finalized, so I guess that director/creator Chris Carter wasn't wasting any time and put Peet right to work. X-Files was possibly one of the most popular TV series of all time, but the first feature film back in 1998 never managed to spark a franchise. When news of the sequel became official, it wasn't that fans weren't happy to have everyone back; it's just that I think we all just wondered what took them so long. X-Files 2 is set for release on July 25th, 2008.