Latest news with #XFiles
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mark Snow, ‘The X-Files' Theme Song Composer, Dies at 78
Mark Snow, the Emmy-nominated composer behind the beloved X-Files theme song, has died. He was 78. Snow died Friday at his home in Connecticut, a representative confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. More from The Hollywood Reporter Kun on Latest Single "Deadman" and His Next Chapter: "It's Really Just the Beginning" Kelly Clarkson Postpones Opening Night of Las Vegas Residency Shortly Before Showtime Young Noble, Member of Tupac Shakur's Outlawz Rap Group, Dies at 47 Sean Callery, a fellow composer and friend of Snow's, also announced his death on Facebook. 'Mark Snow, and one of the most wonderful and talented people I've ever known, has passed away,' he wrote in the Friday post. '33 years ago he began mentoring me as an artist. Who knew that I was also at the beginning of a deep friendship that would only grow and evolve over 3 decades along with our graying hair and tighter deadlines.' Callery continued. 'I am so grateful to him for his sage counsel and his laugh-out-loud biting wit. My career got started by an act of generosity on his part 33 years ago – period, full stop. I love you my friend. There will never ever be another like you. I send love to Glynnis and all his children and grandchildren during this time.' Snow notably composed the iconic opening theme for The X-Files. He worked on the crime drama series during its full time on-air from 1993 until its end in 2018. Aside from the theme song, he worked on the rest of the show's music, earning six Emmy nominations throughout his X-Files tenure. Snow, too, served as the composer of the franchise's 1998 film, The X Files. A 15-time Emmy-nominated composer, Snow lent his talents to a slew of shows, including Blue Bloods, Smallville, One Tree Hill, Children of the Dust and Ghost Whisperer, among others. His work has also appeared across film, including features in The New Mutants, Ernest Saves Christmas and Crazy in Alabama. Snow also frequently worked on TV movies. Some of his past credits include The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, one of his first projects he worked on in 1976 that starred John Travolta, Overboard, Casino, Angel City, Malibu, California Girls, The Lost Capone, An American Story, A Stranger in Town, Trial by Fire, The Perfect Mother, Paradise and Strange Calls. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
Yahoo
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Remembering Mark Snow: A brief oral history of ‘The X-Files Theme,' from the strange real title to the surprising connection to a Smiths song to the missing lyrics
When you think about The X-Files a few things instantly come to mind. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson's paranormal-investigating FBI agents shining their flashlights into a void. The glow of the Cigarette-Smoking Man's cancer stick. The 'I Want to Believe' UFO poster. 'The Truth Is Out There' tagline. And the theme music. Composed by the prolific Mark Snow, the theme, first played in the second episode and would continue to appear in all subsequent episodes of the original series, the two feature films, and the 2016-18 revival. More from Gold Derby 'Apollo 13' star Kathleen Quinlan relives the 1996 Oscars, from a Whoopi wink to a Sorvino hug Could 'Sinners' campaign as a musical at the Golden Globes? The surprising answer Snow died July 4 at his Connecticut home at age 78, and he leaves behind a stunning array of classic TV music. His career launched with the 1976 John Travolta telefilm The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (memorably skewered years later on Seinfeld) and included music for Starsky & Hutch, Dynasty, The Love Boat, Cagney & Lacy, Hart to Hart, T.J. Hooker, Millennium, Smallville, The Ghost Whisperer, Blue Bloods, and The X-Files spinoff series, The Lone Gunmen. His work earned 15 Emmy nominations and 34 ASCAP Awards, and in 2014 he received the Career Achievement Award from the Television Academy's Music Peer Group. To celebrate his career, we've assembled a brief oral history of his most memorable song, "The X-Files Theme," which is actually titled 'Materia Primorsis' — Latin for 'first matter' and referring to the primordial substance from which all things are created. _____ Chris Carter (creator of ): The theme music is done by Mark Snow. I sent him to the drawing board with lots of direction. He was working on that during the summer when we were first producing the show. I think that he probably worked on the main title for several months. Mark Snow (composer): He sent me all kinds of CDs of different groups and music, and he said, 'On this one I like the sax here. I like the singing here. I like the drums here. I like the keyboard here. I like this piece of music.' … He said, 'I'm not saying copy any of it, I'm just saying that's where my head's at musically.' OK, so I listen. I come up with something that was what you'd think a a sci-fi show theme would sound like. Fast. Loud. And he says, 'That's good, that's really very good, but it's just a little overproduced. Let's try again.' But he was so nice. He was really decent and respectful. Comes back again. Same thing happens. … Third time, exact same thing. Carter: He came back to me with things that I rejected a number of times. Snow: I wasn't upset or impatient or anything, I just said, 'I have an idea: why don't you' — I didn't say, 'Why don't you get lost, and I'll take it from here,' which I implied — [but I said,] 'I have an idea. Why don't you go about your business and I'll go about mine. We'll start right from scratch. We'll throw all this away.' So he said, 'OK, good Idea.' And he leaves. And I turn and I put my hand, actually my elbow [and] forearm on the keyboard. And there was this sound effect. This delay echo effect. … I said, 'Oh that's pretty good.' Carter: I had given him a Smiths song called 'How Soon Is Now?' It has a really interesting guitar, sort of mournful guitar in it. And I thought that's what he was going to take from that song, because that's what I love so much about that song. And what he took in the end was the whistling — Morrissey, he is whistling at the end of that song. And [Snow] turned it into that theme song. Snow: I just kept experimenting with all kinds of sounds in my library, and here comes the whistle sound. There was this thing called 'Whistling Joe No. 126' on the Proteus synthesizer, but [it] sounded pretty good. And my wife she's hearing this, she walks in and says, 'What the hell is that? That's really good, that's really interesting.' … I said, 'Hey, you can whistle, too, right? How about humming along with it, or whistling along.' [She said,] 'Oh, no. Blah!' Anyway, I got her to do it, and combined it in there. Snow: He comes over and he hears it. And in typical Chris Carter fashion, he's listening, he's sitting there, and I'm watching him. I'm watching for any kind reaction. And not much. And then he finally says, 'I like that. That's good. All right, let's go with it.' So I thought, 'Boy that was easy. You know we should have started that from the beginning.' So that that was that was how the theme came to be. And whether he was being serious or just having a lark, Duchovny once claimed that Snow had secretly written lyrics to the instrumental. David Duchovny (Agent Fox Mulder): I was told to put words to the theme by the composer of The X-Files Theme. And he said the words were this: "The X-Files is a show/With music by Mark Snow…" That's it. That's what Mark Snow, the composer of the song, says the lyrics to the song are. _____ Interviews sourced from the TV Academy's Archive of American of Gold Derby Cristin Milioti, Amanda Seyfried, Michelle Williams, and the best of our Emmy Limited Series/Movie Actress interviews Paul Giamatti, Stephen Graham, Cooper Koch, and the best of our Emmy Limited Series/Movie Actor interviews Lee Jung-jae, Adam Scott, Noah Wyle, and the best of our Emmy Drama Actor interviews Click here to read the full article.


Daily Mail
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Smallville and Blue Bloods composer Mark Snow dies at 78: 15-time Emmy nominee wrote iconic X-Files theme
Mark Snow, the composer known for his work on numerous hit television shows, has died at age 78. Snow died on Friday at his home in Connecticut, according to Variety. His cause of death has not yet been reported. Snow is best known for composing the theme song for The X-Files, which had a surprisingly large footprint after it became a hit on the charts throughout Europe in 1996. He also lent his talents to scoring popular shows including the Superman prequel Smallville and the police drama Blue Bloods. He was also a key component of shows including Starsky & Hutch, Hart To Hart, T.J. Hooker and The Ghost Whisperer. He's best known for composing the theme song for The X-Files, which had a surprisingly large footprint after it became a hit on the charts throughout Europe in 1996; Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny pictured on The X-Files Snow earned an impressive 15 Emmy nominations over a television composing career that reached back to the mid-1970s. The composer, who was born in Brooklyn, began his formal music education early when he attended New York City's High School of Music & Art, the precursor to today's Fiorella H. LaGuardia High School of Art and Performing Arts. He later attended the Juilliard School, where he befriended the late composer Michael Kamen, who died in 2003. The two were roommates and went on to start rocks bands together. Snow was born Martin Fulterman, and he initially began a career as a record producer, but after he moved to LA and began writing TV scores he adopted the pseudonym Mark Snow to avoid legal threats from his former employer. The name eventually stuck, and he used it consistently as his professional name beginning in the mid-'70s. Snow was part of a first wave of film and television composers who abandoned expensive orchestras in favor of composing primarily for synthesizers and other electronic instruments Variety notes that by the late 1980s he was working exclusively on the devices, which he used to composing the eerie music for The X-Files. The long-running conspiracy-tinged science fiction thriller series starred Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny as FBI agents tasked with examining paranormal cases that other members of the bureau had tried to sweep under the rug. The show was more demanding on its composers than similar dramas, as it featured an extensive use of music, which sometimes required him to fill of 40 minutes of screen time with his compositions. (X-Files episodes tended to be 42 to 45 minutes long before commercials were added in.) The composer Sean Callery, known for scoring 24, gush to Variety about Snow's 'limitless talent and boundless creativity,' which he said was 'matched only by the generosity he bestowed upon other composers who sought his guidance. 'He would give the most inspiring and intelligent feedback when listening to the work of other young artists (myself included),' Callery continued. 'He combined his decades of experience with the encouragement that composers cultivate: to trust in themselves, embrace their own unique voice, and learn to rely on their own instincts. And he did so with a humor and self-deprecation that made his wisdom all the more enduring.' He added that Snow's compositions 'brought an entirely new language of musical storytelling to television.' Snow's most identifiable music from the show was its theme song, which he originally wrote for the pilot episode. It was remixed and released as a single in 1996, which became a surprise chart success in the UK, Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Hungary and even Australia. In an 1997 interview with Playback for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, Snow joked of the piece: 'Nothing really big happens in the song. It stays in D-minor, there's no singing, drums or guitars, and it was a smash hit. That's pretty wild.' Snow developed a strong relationship with X-Files creator Chris Carter, and he went on to score his other shows, including Millennium, the spinoff The Lone Gunmen and Harsh Realm. After getting his start in the '70s scoring for shows including Starsky & Hutch, Vega$ and The Love Boat, he became even more prolific in the '80s with his work on Dynasty, Cagney & Lacey, T.J. Hooker and Pee-wee's Playhouse. The '90s proved to be a less-prolific decade, but primarily because he was so busy writing music for Carter's projects, including The X-Files and Millennium. Later, he scored Smallville, One Tree Hill, Ghost Whisperer and Blue Bloods, which he wrote music for until last year. Snow also wrote the scores for several films, including Ernest Saves Christmas, both X-Files films and The New Mutants. In a departure from the populist fare that he tended to be involved with, Snow also wrote the scores for the legendary French filmmaker Alain Resnais's final four films before his death in 2014.


Geek Tyrant
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE Is Getting a Director's Cut; Chris Carter Says It'll Finally Be 'The Scary Movie I Always Intended' — GeekTyrant
The X-Files has always had its high points with its great performances, unforgettable monsters, UFO conspiracy storytelling, and that relentless hunt for the truth that made Mulder and Scully pop culture staples. But when fans talk about the franchise's cinematic outings, it's usually Fight the Future from 1998 that gets the spotlight. The follow-up film, I Want to Believe (2008), didn't land with the same force. It was pretty divisive. But now, nearly two decades later, creator Chris Carter is getting a second shot to show fans the version he always wanted to make. On a recent episode of Fail Better with David Duchovny, Carter dropped the news that he's officially working on a director's cut of I Want to Believe . 'I just got the go ahead to do a director's cut of I Want to Believe. I can't tell you how excited I am about this.' Duchovny said: 'You took shit for that movie.' Carter didn't deny it: 'Oh, big time. I made it too scary, basically, and I was told so by the brass at Fox, and they wanted a PG-13 movie. So we cut it back… and [the ratings board] said 'No, it's not a PG-13 yet, you've got to cut it back even farther.' 'I can tell you that you can do more on network television… [the censors] are more permissive than they are for the movies. Now I have a chance to go back and make the scary movie that I always intended to make.' Unlike Fight the Future , which leaned into the show's alien conspiracy mythology, I Want to Believe was a more grounded, horror-tinged mystery, more Monster of the Week than myth arc. It felt like a long, cold, bleak episode, and that tone threw people. But hearing Carter describe what he wanted versus what ended up on screen sheds new light on the film's vibe. 'It's not just doing a director's cut to do a director's cut. It's really kind of bringing to life something that for me was on the page but never got to the screen.' Carter's comments put the film in a different light, especially for fans who loved the show's darker, more psychological stories. If this new cut leans fully into that unnerving horror, it might finally connect with the viewers who were hoping for something more intense the first time around. As of now, Carter hasn't shared when the director's cut will drop. If he only recently got the green light, it may still be a ways off. But with the film now streaming on Hulu, this might be the perfect time for fans to revisit it, maybe with a new lens. It's not often a creator gets to reclaim a film nearly twenty years later and make it the story they meant to tell. If Carter's version turns out to be the nightmare he originally planned? That sounds like The X-Files in its purest form. I can't wait to watch it!
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
David Duchovny's Malibu Home and Train Caboose Guest Cottage Sell for $11 Million
Less than two months after it first hit the market for $12.5 million, David Duchovny's longtime home in the coveted Point Dume enclave of Malibu has sold to an unidentified buyer for just under $11 million. And though that's considerably less than he originally wanted, it's still around $6.2 million more than the veteran film and TV actor paid Hollywood writer/producer Chris Carter for the landlocked 1950s spread nine years ago, back in spring 2016. Since then, the X-Files and Californication star has extensively renovated and expanded the premises. Most notably, he kitted out an existing train caboose where he went on to pen his 2021 novel Truly Like Lightning and record episodes of his Fail Better podcast. More from Robb Report Koenigsegg Is Completely Sold Out of All Its Hypercars This New 65-Foot Sailing Yacht Combines High Design With High Performance One of Ballet's Greatest Dancers Is Selling His N.Y.C. Townhouse for $2.8 Million RELATED: Kanye West's Former Malibu Home Sells for More Than $30 Million After Less Than a Week Resting amid a gated parcel spanning a little more than an acre, the modern wood-sided abode offers three bedrooms and five baths in roughly 3,580 square feet of single-level living space boasting polished cement floors, high ceilings dotted with clerestory windows and skylights, and smart-home systems. Large pivoting glass doors open seamlessly to the outdoors. Among the highlights is a spacious great room with living and dining areas, as well as a kitchen sporting custom cabinetry, stone countertops, and top-notch Miele and Fisher & Paykel appliances. The primary suite flaunts a luxe bath with a clawfoot soaking tub and a steam shower, while an office overlooks picturesque grounds hosting a lap pool and a sunken fire pit. Rounding it all out is a detached building that currently serves as a gym, along with the caboose-turned-guesthouse that has its own living and sleeping areas, a kitchen, a built-in dining nook, a bath, and a rooftop deck. The property also transfers with a deeded access key to a secluded beach. RELATED: Inside the Aviator, a $7.5 Million Flight-Inspired Home on a Rugged Mountaintop High Above Malibu Per Chris Cortazzo of Compass, who handled both sides of the deal, things are picking up as of late in wildfire-ravaged Malibu. 'PCH reopened in May, and it's like a light bulb went off,' he said. 'Our entire city center—from Nobu West and beyond—remains intact, and we're booming right now. We're seeing strong demand from displaced residents looking for homes. I believe insurance payouts are starting to come through, and rather than waiting to rebuild, many people are turning to Malibu, drawn by the lifestyle we offer.' The 64-year-old New York native and two-time Golden Globe-winning actor previously told The Wall Street Journal he decided to sell because his children are grown. Duchovny, who recently launched his Secrets Declassified docuseries on the History Channel, reportedly still owns an apartment in New York and a house in Costa of Robb Report The 10 Priciest Neighborhoods in America (And How They Got to Be That Way) In Pictures: Most Expensive Properties Click here to read the full article.