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?

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.

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.

The Hollywood Reporter announced that Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, and Xzibit have all joined the cast of X-Files 2. Details are pretty sketchy as to who Scottish comedian Connolly will play, but THR did confirm that Xzibit (the 'Pimper of Rides') and Peet would be playing fellow FBI agents alongside our friends Mulder and Scully (David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson). Peet has just signed to star in the drama, Real Men Cry with Mark Ruffalo, but it looks like X-Files might come first now that the production looks to be ready to go. Xzibit had also originally been signed to star in Oliver Stone's Pinkville, but when that film was stalled because of the writer's strike, I guess it freed up some time in the rapper/actor/TV host's schedule.

I'd be willing to guess that most fans of the show were pretty surprised when word of a sequel started making the rounds again. When official word finally hit, the fan in me was thrilled and a little curious as to how they were going to make a stand-alone story. Luckily, Chris Carter and series vet Frank Spotnitz wrote the screenplay. Filming is set to begin in Vancouver later this month, and the production is also currently casting in Canada. Although, there is still no confirmation on whether Lance Henriksen (Frank Black in Carter's other series; Millenium) will be making an appearance.

Just last week, Christopher brought us some script details that had been leaked. But, some of the details were later discounted by Carter, who said that he was using old character and plot to try and keep his casting process as secret as possible up until the last minute. I hope all the secrecy is worth it, because I can't see the addition of Xzibit and Billy Connolly as something worth this much security. X-Files 2 is set for release on July 25th, 2008.

We've been raving about the Canadian zombie comedy, Fido, on Cinematical for a while now. After a great premiere at TIFF, the film is slated for release on June 15th, and we've finally got a teaser for you to sink your zombie-yearning teeth into. It's quite brief, and doesn show much, but that might be best. Like any comedy, the laughs are best the first time around, and this teaser does a good job of showing the gist without revealing the gusto.

If you've missed our news on the servant zombie flick -- take some post-war "troops-yay!" propaganda films, add in some Donna Reed home life in full, vibrant technicolor, add a bunch of moaning, partially-decomposed zombies and blend them all together to get Fido. The film centers on a post-zombie-apocalypse paradise called Willard, where ZomCon gives out special collars that make flesh-hungry zombies into docile servants. Beyond the walls of the town, zombies moan groan and exist in a wasteland -- think of the future earth in the 80's camp tv show, Buck Rogers. Within the walls, people blissfully let zombies do almost everything, which usually amounts to daily chores and menial tasks, but they can also perform carnal pleasures, the likes of which Timmy's neighbour delights in.

However, unlike the zombie-loving people around him, Timmy wonders about the truth behind what a zombie is and what he/she can feel. This inevitably leads him to befriend his new zombie help, Fido (Billy Connolly). You should check out the teaser now, and the film this summer, if for no other reason than to see the Scottish comedian go through an entire feature with nothing but grunts, groans and facial reactions.

Steve Anderson's feature-length documentary Fuck sports an impressive, wildly diverse cast: Thanks to the magic of editing, Pat Boone appears alongside Chuck D and Billy Connolly, and Sam Donaldson, Janeane Garofalo, Bill Maher, Miss Manners and Ron Jeremy -- among copious others -- also make appearances. All are on hand, presumably, because they speak from a position of authority on the film's title word. In addition to the actors, newsmen, comics, porn stars and politics, the film also features a handful of "cunning linguists," who provide periodic infusions of what passes for academic commentary. Token academics aside, however, the film is little more than a flimsy excuse -- an entertaining excuse, mind you, but an excuse nevertheless -- to shout "FUCK!" in a crowded movie theater, and to mock the conservatives Anderson knows won't see his movie.

Less focused than its title and press would have us believe, Fuck is a superficial examination of obscenity in America. It revolves around the word in question, but branches out generously into subjects like FCC regulation, the impact of Lenny Bruce and George Carlin, and the horror of Janet Jackson's dreaded right boob. Most of the movie is made up of sound-bite friendly talking heads interviews which, because they take place against a black background, can create the weak illusion that all the subjects are in the same room. Thus, Anderson can cleverly edit his interviews with Miss Manners and Ron Jeremy into one another, vaguely suggesting at one point that she's been driven from the room by the power of his dirty words. (Nothing of the sort happened, of course, but it's always fun to mock Miss Manners, right? And oh, that naughty Ron Jeremy!)

All is well in the peaceful town of Willard, where life seems permanently stuck in the 1950s. The sun is always shining, the flowers are always blooming -- and zombies handle most of the more mundane tasks, thus freeing up the good citizens of Willard to enjoy their lives. You see, several years back, space dust fell on the earth, causing the dead to rise and become flesh-eating legions of the undead. There were the terrible Zombie Wars, when mankind fought not to be cannibalized by the rotting corpses of friends and family, and then came ZomCon. ZomCon invented a security collar that, when attached around a zombie's neck and activated, it turns a vicious, flesh-devouring monster into a productive member of the community. Thanks to ZomCon, zombies deliver mail, take care of the trash, and do countless other menial tasks, and the living citizens of the community are safe -- so long as the collars work.

• Bloodrayne - Teutonic terror Uwe Boll directs movies no more than gravity directs objects to Earth. His grasp of pithy things like story and character development is nearly non-existent, and his penchant for adapting video games has earned him a reputation as a sort of idiot savant (only without the savant part), kind of like if the kid on the porch in Deliverance only knew how to play the riff that Vanilla Ice nicked from Queen's "Under Pressure". His latest, a shameless Blade ripoff about a half-human, half-vampire avenger (Kristianna Loken), is miscast, barely written and staged with the skill of a spastic with cataracts. Currently residing on the IMDB's Bottom 100 (at #34), it and Boll's rotting body of work have elevated the oeuvre of Ed Wood, whose non-charting Plan 9 From Outer Space was once considered the worst film ever made, to common hack status. At least the inclusion of the free PC version of the Bloodrayne 2 video game will help soothe buyer remorse.
 

You know how, at the end of Shaun of the Dead (SPOILER AHEAD!), the zombies that were still around had been domesticated? Well, someone has made a whole movie with that premise and, since as far as I'm concerned it's almost as hard to make a bad zombie movie as it is to screw up one about vampires, it sounds pretty damn good to me.

The movie - called Fido - is set in a "small town lost in the idyllic world of the 50's, where the sun shines every day, everybody knows their neighbor, and rotting zombies carry the mail." I mean, hell. What's not to love about that? Despite a small human-flesh-eating problem that emerged when the dead first rose, everything has been fine since the invention of a collar that calmed the zombies down. However, things take a turn for the worse when "Timmy Robinson's best friend in the whole wide world ([who] is a six-foot tall rotting zombie named Fido)...eats the next-door neighbor." Surely I speak for a lot of you when I say "HA!"

Despite its super low-budget and indie sound, Fido was in fact produced by Lionsgate which, based on the success of recently releases like Saw and Hostel, certainly knows what it's doing. In addition, he cast includes Billy Connolly as Fido and Carrie-Anne Moss as Timmy's mom, which isn't too shabby. There's no release date yet, but this sucker just might be Lionsgate's next sneaky hit.