Vancouver: So The X-Files actor David Duchovny tells Entertainment Tonight that he’s sick and tired of the ‘wet coast,’ and show creator Chris Carter discloses to reporters that he wants to shift from tv to the big screen, potentially ending the series a year before its stars’ contracts are up.

Where does this leave Vancouver as the home base for the popular X-Files and its sister show Millennium?

It’s a long shot, but it could well end up with us waving good-bye to the two series that have done more for building Vancouver’s production profile than any other tv show, including Cannell’s barrier-breaking series 21 Jumpstreet a decade ago.

Issues seem to be hitting a critical mass. Cranky Duchovny apparently wants the show to be relocated to Los Angeles, even though Carter likes Vancouver’s murky, often soggy, ambiance. In USA Today on Jan. 14, Carter is quoted as saying the end of 1998 could see the end of The X-Files series, which will wind up season five with a feature film.

And in a gossipy bit, the Vancouver Province newspaper reports X-Files costar Gillian Anderson has left her Vancouver-based art director husband for a man in his ‘early 20’s,’ thereby cutting her roots to her North Vancouver home.

Bob Goodwin, the series’ co-executive producer, says rumors about the show going south have persisted since the first season and that it’s up to 20th Century Fox to decide what to do with the final season. As a Bellingham resident, he adds he’s in no hurry to move back to l.a. And he repeats the familiar refrain that Vancouver offers more location variety. He chalks up Duchovny’s recent comments to homesickness.

But what about upstart Millennium, the People’s Choice winner for best new series? After rumors that the gruesome, serial-crime show ran way over budget (at least in the early episodes) and has drained creative resources away from The X-Files, Millennium seems to have hit its stride in recent episodes. However, its ultimate roost is also iffy.

And now that the family of the show’s lead character Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) is being stalked again, what’s stopping him from relocating from ‘Seattle’ to, say, Burbank?

Jennifer Metcalf, the assistant to Millennium’s co-executive producer John Kousakis, says that even though Millennium shares creative resources with The X-Files, Kousakis has no comment on a possible premature ending of Carter’s flagship program.

Millennium, Metcalf reports, will be in production until April in Vancouver. A second season, she adds, has not yet been confirmed.

-Anyone takin’ bets?

Regarding those new television licences under consideration at the crtc:

Word on the street says that both Baton and Citytv will get the go ahead to start new Vancouver signals while Rogers will be permitted to purchase multilingual pay-tv station Fairchild Television to make it a free service.

-Pitt patrol

In what can only be called a big score for newly minted Vancouver-based Milestone Productions, the company will oversee the big-budget feature Seven Years in Tibet.

Actor Brad Pitt headlines the estimated us$60 million feature, which has a production schedule that spans Feb. 3 to March 3.

Milestone principal and production manager Brent O’Connor – no stranger to big-money pictures – says the shoot will take place at Mt. Waddington, 10-or-so hours north of Vancouver and will work to simulate the Himalayas.

Pitt, who stars with u.k. actor David Thewlis, replays the true story of an Austrian mountain climber who, during wwii, escapes a prison camp, treks 600 miles to Lhasa in Tibet and becomes an advisor to the Dalai Lama.

Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud (The Bear), the film will be distributed through Mandalay and Sony Pictures. The release date has not yet been determined.

In other hunk news, aging sex symbol Richard Chamberlain costars with Hal Holbrook in the cbs mow All the Winters That Have Been. The telepic – about a forest ranger who returns to the San Juan islands and rekindles a past love – shoots in town until Feb. 21.

-Gimme Gemini

We may bemoan the dearth of homemade product in b.c., but the latest roster of Gemini nominees indicates that what little we do is of high quality. Of the 68 Western nominees for the 11th annual Gemini Awards, 52 come from b.c.

According to the local Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television office, this year’s nomination tally is more than twice that of two years ago. Among the honored are filmmaker Anne Wheeler, the brain trust behind the tv movie Little Criminals, Walter Daroshin’s The War Between Us, and perennial winner ReBoot.

-B.C. dealmaker

British Columbia Film saw its name in lights 40% more often in 1996 than in 1995. The funding agency signed contracts supporting the development and production of 84 homegrown film and tv projects, compared to 60 deals the year before. The agency’s investment in new projects jumped 35% in 1996 to $4.6 million.

Delivery volumes of features, series, mows and documentaries increased 54% over the year to 79 hours.

Most of the growth came in the form of tv series. Output increased from four series of 58 episodes in 1995 to nine series of 130 episodes last year. Credits include Madison, Kleo the Misfit Unicorn, Nilus the Sandman and Champions of the Wild, among others.

Among the development projects sharing $59,000 in funding in the last quarter of 1996 are Julia Keatley’s family feature Batboy (for SuperChannel), Ken Hegan’s film drama The Deadline (SuperChannel), Monty Basset’s nature documentary Life on the Vertical (Discovery), and Gumboot Productions’ Where’s God? Meeting the Medicine Buddha (Vision).

-The new math

What a time for a mistake. RM Trust, the company overseeing the ballots at WIC Western International Communications’ contentious agm Jan. 8, got the math wrong on a rare vote by Class b ‘non-voting’ shareholders to dissolve the company. Instead of 57% in favor of liquidating wic – a declaration that clearly surprised wic management – the number was actually 45% in favor of liquidation.

No reason for the mistake was offered by the trust company. But New York arbitrageur Oppenheimer & Co. – which had organized the dissolution vote – says the numbers still reflect strong dissatisfaction among the broadcasting company’s non-voting shareholders.

-Please adjust your sets

In ever-imploding cyberspace, service providers come and go. The shock waves have bumped me to a new Internet address. For those who prefer e-mail, I can be reached at iedwards@istar.ca.