2022/12/12 - The Discourse host Mike DeAngelo

David Duchovny Talks ‘The Estate,’ A Possible ‘X-Files’ Return, & Writing His First Graphic Novel, ‘Kepler’ [The Discourse Podcast]

Mike DeAngelo
December 13, 2022 9:18 am

In today’s episode of The Discourse, host Mike DeAngelo puts on his tin foil hat to sit down and talk sci-fi with one of the genre’s most beloved figures, David Duchovny (“The X-Files,” “Californication,” “Twin Peaks”). The actor/writer/director is currently out promoting a couple of projects dropping around the same time. First, his film, “The Estate,” in which two sisters, played by Toni Collette and Anna Farris, attempt to win over their terminally ill aunt in hopes of becoming the beneficiaries of a large estate. Duchovny plays a seedy, perverted cousin, Dick, who also shows up with similar motives. The film is directed by Dean Craig (“Death at a Funeral”) and also stars Kathleen Turner, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ron Livingston, and more.

During the chat, Duchovny shared that he requested a certain true story from his life be added to the film to really emphasize who his character truly is. The moment finds his character, Dick, investing in the creation of an app that turns someone’s phone into a mirror.

“One of the things that I suggested was the mirror app thing,” Duchovny said. “That was totally me because I had thought that at some point, like five years ago. Like, oh my god! This is a great idea, and I start calling people like, ‘How would I make this? I don’t know how to write code. How would I make the mirror app?’ And they were like, ‘Well, that’s your camera.’ So, that was all me.”

No stranger to the written word or science fiction, Duchovny is also releasing his first graphic novel, “Kepler,” which follows a trio of different species descended from Neanderthals and apes on an Earth-like planet in which homo sapiens became extinct. The Dark Horse novel takes inspiration from the “Planet of the Apes” series and is described as an “allegorical thriller of environmental disaster, colonialism, religion, history, and adolescence.” Before the story took the form of a graphic novel, it turns out Duchovny was pitching it as an ambitious television series.

“It was in development with a producer I had met. I had written the pilot – I didn’t even write a series or have a series document,” Duchovny shared. “The pilot would encompass maybe three or four pages of the graphic novel, but it was way more of a family drama and, tonally, it was just really weird. It was a hard sell. I really didn’t know how to sell it, and then, as we were working on it, things just became clear that I had to get down to the bones of this epic story around some kind of family drama that I could discover later. So, I would say the pilot was a lot funnier, a lot more human, and less sci-fi in terms of the broad sweeps of the show, but I really didn’t pitch it that much. I did go over to Dark Horse, and I pitched it, and they were like, ‘Well, it’s a big bite.’ It’s an expensive show, and they are not themselves producing expensive shows. And they said, ‘We’d love to see it as a comic or a graphic novel.’ And I was like, ‘Oh!’ And I just veered off into that with the hope that once I finished this graphic novel, people could see what I saw in it.”

Of course, a conversation with Duchovny would never truly be complete without at least a brief discussion of his most famous role as Fox Mulder in “The X-Files.” And while Duchovny has had his ups and downs in terms of his feelings for the series, it appears he currently has nothing but appreciation for the show and its fans.

“I have just gratitude for the show and amazement that it remains something that people want to ask me about,” Duchovny said. “But that’s something that I long ago made peace with – that there aren’t generational shows like that anymore. Well, I guess there are every generation or so…you know, there’s something about ‘The X-Files’ that remains. It was so worldwide at the time. You know, those things don’t happen, so it’s just like, still, amazement that I got to be a part of it. I think at some point early on; I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got to find another one.’ But they don’t exist – there isn’t another one.”

It might be safe to say that Duchovny gets this question the most: “When will there be more X-Files?” Series creator, Chris Carter, has recently been rumored to be developing an “X-Files” animated series, which Duchovny off-handedly confirmed by saying, “I think he is, yeah.” However, for David himself, the answer to the question of Mulder’s return seems to be a bit of a moving target, as Gillian Anderson has stated multiple times that she is done playing Agent Fox Mulder’s partner, Dana Scully.

“I can’t really answer that question,” Duchovny said of another Mulder adventure. “For me coming back, it’s always like, ‘Well, what are the stories? What’s the reason for being at this point?’ I mean, there are many reasons for being. One of them might be because people want to see it. Another would be that Chris [Carter] or someone that Chris knows and likes says, ‘Oh, I’ve got a story to tell! Check this out – this is how we could do this now.’ There’s not a world where we just come back and do it the way we did before because the world has changed. How do we change with it? If you could make the pitch to me and said, ‘Let’s do it this way now,’ which is kind of how I got back in the last time. And I was like, ‘Let me try that.’ You’re going to play this guy in his thirties and his sixties. That’s an interesting challenge, but you don’t want to play it the same way. You don’t want to tell the same stories because that becomes kind of weird and obscene. You don’t want to be the [Rolling] Stones still writing about making out with girls in the back seat of a car when they’re eighty years old. I mean, you could do it, and you could make a lot of money at it, but part of you would die.”

“The Estate” is currently available on demand, and Duchovny’s graphic novel, “Kepler,” will be available on December 27.


The Playlist