Initially, it was Chris Carter’s wife who brought him to Vancouver.

Carter found himself in British Columbia in 1986 when his wife, Dori Pierson, was working a Disney Sunday Movie project in the area. A few years later, when Carter was trying to figure out where to shoot a pilot of his new series, The X-Files, he immediately thought back to the forests he saw in Vancouver.

“The reason we didn’t shoot it in Los Angeles was because there was no interesting forests and we needed an interesting forest,” Carter told Playback Daily. “I thought back to the beautiful forests I saw in 1986 and I thought, let’s go to Vancouver. It was a no-brainer.”

This June, Carter and his crew will return to Vancouver to shoot a six-episode event series of The X-Files, ordered by Fox in March. While there was initial talk of shooting it in Los Angeles, it made both financial and creative sense to return to Vancouver for the show’s revival, Carter said.

“The work ethic is very high; the crew really commits to the work. It’s one of the reasons why the [original The X-Files] show became as successful as it did,” Carter said.

However, when it comes down to the financials, it’s hard to beat strong tax incentives and a low dollar, Carter noted.

“It makes economic sense to be in a place where you give them a dollar and you get roughly a $1.20 back – you can’t argue with those economics…what I see it as [is] a way to put more on the screen,” Carter said.

Carter said he anticipates almost all of the crew working on The X-Files miniseries will be Canadian, with the exception of the writers and editors, who will be based stateside.

The new event series will mark a reunion between Carter and many of the Canadian crew who worked on the original series and subsequent movies, including DP Joel Ransom and production designer Mark Freeborn. New behind-the-camera Canadian talent confirmed to work on the event series so far include Grace Gilroy, who will serve as a line producer. On the acting side, Canadian William B. Davis will be reprising his role as The Smoking Man alongside series stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.

A premiere date for the series on Fox has yet to be announced but production is set to start in Vancouver in June and will last about three months, Carter said. Potential studio locations have not yet been confirmed. While Carter said it was Fox that pitched the event series initially, everyone involved thought now was a good time to bring the series back.

“For a person like me, a storyteller, I see this as a ripe opportunity to do really good work in a prescribed amount of time,” Carter said.

Carter will attend  the Vancouver International Film Festival’s Industry Reception event on April 29 as part of the festival’s broader celebrations of National Canadian Film Day.

Photo credit: Diyah Perah