DATELINE -- Monday, 16 August 1999
Fox vs. Fox: Fans of The X-Files shouldn't get their hopes up for too many more TV shows, movies, or DVDs -- at least not with David Duchovny in them. The popular actor who, along with co-star Gillian Anderson and creator Chris Carter, helped make the low-budget cult series a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon, has filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against Fox, alleging that the studio behind The X-Files has their own little conspiracy going, partly by selling X-Files re-runs to their own F/X cable channel rather than placing them on the open market. Since Duchovny shares in the residuals from TV re-runs of the series, he claims that the lost revenue has cost him millions -- $25 million, in fact, which he's seeking in court as damages, according to Variety. Neither Gillian Anderson or Chris Carter has commented, but Duchovny's suit claims Carter was paid "hush-money" to overlook the deal (Carter is not named as a defendant, however).
Where does The X-Files go from here? With Duchovny in the final year of his contract for the series, it is expected that he will not re-sign, and it's possible that the show will conclude after this season. And if that's a shame, its also conceivable that there will be no more X-Files movies if Duchovny is unwilling to participate, leaving the promising franchise that started with Fight The Future with only one entry, instead of the numerous films that were predicted in the tradition of the Star Trek series, another television program that successfully made the transition from the living room to the big screen.