Millennium Fandom Fundom!

To maintain our efforts to promote the campaign and continue our relationship with the cast and crew that have shown such warmth and support towards us, we proudly present the Millennium Initiation Test, a quirky way of involving Millennium's supporters in our campaign. As we previously mentioned, Trevor White is a staunch ally of this campaign and one, of many, cast and crew members who desire to see a return of the Millennium franchise in whatever form this may take. He is the first, of many others, to indulge the campaign team in a moment of Millennium fun and we urge you to check us out on a regular basis to enjoy many more serious, and lighthearted, contributions from those who contributed to the franchise. The festive season is the perfect time for a little frivolity so read the words of a Millennium cast member and continue your support of this campaign as you do so!

The Campaigners Speak!

We are proud, in addition to the exclusive Lance Henriksen interview now online, to bring another interview to your attention. Avi Quijada, of X-Files News, took some time from her busy schedule to interview our campaign coordinator, James, and fellow campaigner, Kimon, to bring you all the behind the scenes news regarding our campaign to secure the return of 'Frank Black'. In addition to 'Millennium' we are all admirers of the 'X-Files' and admirers of the wonderful work the team at xfilesnews.com undertake in their appreciation of the franchise. To read the article and to support xfilesnews with your gratitude and comments, click here!

EXCLUSIVE: BacktoFRANKBLACK interviews LANCE HENRIKSEN

PART ONE: Man In BLACK

BacktoFrankBlack.com was thrilled when Frank Black himself, Lance Henriksen, offered an exclusive interview on behalf of the campaign. We were very fortunate to get this opportunity on Thanksgiving day to speak to the actor on a variety of topics. In this first part of the interview, Lance talks about Millennium, its potential future and the work that went into creating Frank Black.

(Lue haastattelu suomeksi tästä!)
(¡Lee la entrevista en español aquí!)

BACKTOFRANKBLACK: Do you think the return of Frank Black is a possibility? Are you still interested in playing Frank again - you were very optimistic at the conventions this past year.

LANCE HENRKISEN: Yeah, I know, I would absolutely love to do it and I really think it is a possibility, but it's really up to Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter.

BTFB: If Frank Black and Millennium returned in some form, what would be your preference in the form it would return and why?

LANCE: A movie would be very different. With a movie you have an end in sight - you can gear your energy for it, but when you have a [TV] series that goes on for ten and a half months - there is no way to really have that "end in sight" because you know you'll be coming back next year. It's very tiring.

BTFB: So would a movie be ideal?

LANCE: Yeah. Ideally.

BTFB: Aside from Millennium your career has been movie orientated. Comparatively you've not focused much on television.

LANCE: No, not very often. The reason I've always believed it [Millennium] should be a movie on the big screen or a channel like HBO is you have more freedom with language and the things that can happen. You are allowed to talk about more and that's more natural to me as opposed to being kind of the sanitized guy. I'm not very good at that.

BTFB: Yes, it could be said your movies do not reflect a "sanitized" film career!

LANCE: [laughs] No I don't go for it. I've tried everything you can try in films and having fun, and it's a wonderful expression. To be locked into a thing like TV is really tough - I don't mean to whinge about it, believe me, I loved every minute of Millennium, but it was tiring... it was like.. despair, it was so tiring. I was so tired, but everyone in TV has felt that. I don't feel very special about it.

BTFB: Both yourself and Chris Carter spoke candidly about the concerns over the stylistic and narrative changes to season two on the Millennium box-set - it would be fair to say that the comments have energized the issue of the second season within fandom - would you mind speaking a little further on your feelings towards the second season?

LANCE: Well, it wasn't hated! We felt the second season was subversive to the show. The first thing that happened was when Glen Morgan and James Wong put out a t-shirt saying "98% less serial killer"! What? The whole premise of the show was solving crimes that were almost impossible to solve - we felt it was subversive in a real way!

Remember, I couldn't watch the show while I was doing it! I couldn't - I didn't have the time. I didn't see the shows themselves until the box-sets were coming out. As I got deeper into season two, I felt that the writers were trying out some very unusual work - some very strange events! I started to see one or two of the episodes were very creative! That took the sting out of my original feelings.

BTFB: Can I ask you about Frank's gift? It's another fan favorite for debate! Chris has said on the DVD it was originally intended in season one to be simply a depiction of Frank's intuition, yet even in season one there is a flavor of something more mystical going on. Were you briefed on this possibility?

LANCE: Well let me say this: you know how a great chess player works, right? They study, they study, they study - they know all the moves of different great chess players? I always felt Frank Black had morphed into a person who put abstract loose ends together in his head in a way that other people couldn't. He could take threads of an idea and they would suddenly appear to him almost a linear story. In other words, walking into a room he would see pieces of a puzzle like a great chess player and he would string them together. And that's what I always thought - that the Gift was intellect and intuition - not psychic. I don't know how you would describe a psychic actually - I couldn't describe one - except a gift from God, like Moses talking to him or a luminary or some stuff.

To me, it was something much more.. kind of pragmatic. I always felt Chris understood that I didn't want to judge anybody. I didn't want Frank Black to be a judge or a puritan who sat on the edge of "this is good/bad". No Gift would work in your brain if you had judgments going on. The Gift was only about discovering the intent and the function of what was happening.

BTFB: Do you think giving Frank this non-judgmental aspect to his personality has helped make the character so unique and iconic?

LANCE: Right, because I read all the books on what different kinds of serial killers there are and the things they go through, how they cover their tracks and all these things. I always felt the "art" that would come out of this is in the impartial acceptance. In a way it's like raising a child - you don't ever want to break the self-esteem of a child, you want to nourish and nurture them, right? In a sense, in pursuing someone doing terrible things you really want to know why to stop them from happening again. Because these people are not well, they're really not well.

BTFB: This seems to be what makes Frank so internationally compelling, he is a man not looking for justice through revenge, but simply to stop people doing horrible things.

LANCE: Right, exactly, you do know they have to be put away, but that's somebody else's job - that's not his [Frank's] job, his life. There is a great phrase, and the phrase is "I don't really like religion so much because it's for people who are afraid to go to hell, a spirituality is for a person who have already been there." And I think that's more about what Frank Black is - he's already been there.

In fact we based it [Millennium] on a man who actually was working on over a 100 cases and he had a stroke and almost died. They found him in the hotel room and he was almost dead. And he came back, he was fine after they got him back on his feet - but once you come that close it changes you.

Part two of this interview will be posted in the next couple of weeks. Watch this blog for more updates or join the BACKTOFRANKBLACK mailing list for regular updates.

In the second part of this exclusive interview, Lance speaks more on his role as Frank, the character's role in the show and more on the campaign!

Please support Lance's kind contributions by supporting the campaign to the full and sending a letter to FOX - more details here!

Spanish Update

Spanish update: ¡Próximos Estrenos y La abadía de Berzano!
¡El interés por la campaña aumenta día a día! El popular sitio argentino Próximos Estrenos, que se ocupa de los últimos estrenos en cine, ha incluido una nota sobre Back to Frank Black entre sus últimas novedades. Esperamos que sea una señal, y que no pase mucho tiempo antes de que el mismo sitio pueda incluir una película de Frank Black... ¡entre sus estrenos recientes!
Pero eso no es todo, ya que "La abadía de Berzano", brillante rincón de 'cinéfagos', también informa a sus lectores de nuestra iniciativa.
Agradecemos a estos dos sitios el servir de base para que más lectores se enteren de la campaña.

¡Último momento! Como si fuera poco, Axxon.com.ar, la leidísima web de noticias ha agregado el comunicado de prensa a su página de noticias.

Nightmares in red, white and blue!

The website created to promote Lance Henriksen's latest feature has publicly promoted the campaign to return Frank Black.

Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film is a feature-length documentary based on the book of the same name by Joseph Maddrey. It examines the idea that horror films reflect the times and places in which they are made -- illustrating how classic monster movies exploited the anxieties of war-time generations, and how more savage modern horror films stem from the psychic fallout of America’s counterculture movement and the subsequent rise of increasingly conservative political forces.

Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue is narrated by horror genre icon Lance Henriksen and features exclusive interviews with legendary auteurs like John Carpenter, George A. Romero, Joe Dante, Larry Cohen, and Roger Corman, as well as film historian John Kenneth Muir and Fangoria editor Tony Timpone. Their observations are illustrated with clips from more than 100 films -- ranging from the classic Universal monster movies to the psychological horrors of film noir, from groundbreaking films like Night of the Living Dead, Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and Jaws to contemporary slasher movies, Torture Porn, and beyond. In short, it is the most comprehensive documentary on America’s most durable and prolific film genre.

To return the support please check out the following link for information about this exciting new production.

RUSSIAN UPDATE: Вернуть Фрэнка Блэка!

За последние несколько месяцев в ходе промоушена фильма "Секретные материалы: Я хочу верить" создателю сериала Крису Картеру и его постоянному соавтору Фрэнку Спотницу неоднократно задавали вопросы о судьбе полнометражного фильма по мотивам еще одного культового детища компании 1013 - сериала "Тысячелетие" (Millennium). Слухи об этом ходят вот уже несколько лет, и Крис неоднократно подтверждал, что он готов заняться съемками фильма, у него есть идеи и согласие Ланса Хенриксена, исполнителя главной роли, но есть одно большое но - заинтересованность в проекте студии FOX.

Летом Фрэнк Спотниц в своем блоге открыто намекнул: если что и сможет сдвинуть дело с мертвой точки, так это энтузиазм со стороны фанатов. Вроде того, что продемонстрировали икс-филы, когда боролись за XF2: многочисленные онлайн-петиции, платные объявления в прессе, коробки с письмами в офис FOX. Что ж, пришло время поклонников "Тысячелетия" и Фрэнка Блэка бороться за СВОЙ фильм - вместе с создателями и актерами "Тысячелетия".

И первым шагом стало создание глобальной интернет-кампании Back To Frank Black, которая всего за несколько месяцев своего существования смогла добиться впечатляющих результатов.

В поддержку кампании за возвращение Фрэнка Блэка - главного героя "Тысячелетия" - высказались не только "родственные души" - популярные XF-сайты XFilesUltimate.com и X-FilesLexicon.com, но и многочисленные развлекательные ресуры и подкасты, посвященные мистическим сериалам и фильмам, а также крупнейшие издания вроде культовых хоррор-журналов Fangoria и Black Magazine. Поддержать кампанию призывают влиятельный кинокритик Джон Кеннет Муир и телеканал ZoneHorror. IMDb.com, самый крупный в мире ресурс, посвященный кино, разместил на страницах "Тысячелетия" и всех ключевых актеров и создателей статью с просьбой поддержать кампанию.

И конечно же, в стороне не остались ключевые фигуры "Тысячелетия"! Актеры Ланс Хенриксен, Сара-Джейн Редмонд (Люси Батлер), Кристен Клоук (Лара Минз), Стивен Миллер (Энди МакКларен), Тревор Уайт (Дуг Скайфи) высказались в поддержку кампании Back To Frank Black. Композитор Марк Сноу и оператор Роберт МакЛахлан также в курсе существования кампании. А как же Крис Картер, сам создатель "Тысячелетия"? В последнее время из-за болезни Крис ушел в тень, но у организаторов кампании есть сведения, что создатель знает об инициативе фанатов и поддерживает ее.

И конечно же, старания поклонников "Тысячелетия" всячески поощряет сценарист и продюсер Фрэнк Спотниц! Кроме того, что он регулярно публикует в своем блоге пресс-релизы кампании, в недавнем интервью для Movieweb.com на вопрос о полнометражном фильме "Тысячелетие" ответил следующее: "Забавно, но меня спрашивают об этом постоянно. Чуть ли не в каждом интервью кто-нибудь спрашивает: "А где фильм "Тысячелетие"?" С самого начала Крис сказал, что с радостью готов его снять, и я думаю, Ланс (Хенриксен) тоже, но чем дольше мы тянем, тем меньше шансов остается. Я думаю, чтобы это произошло, потребуется настоящее, согласованное, пылкое усилие. Я знаю, что есть большое количество людей в интернет-сообществе, которые работают над тем, чтобы фильм стал реальностью. Сейчас идет кампания "Вернуть Фрэнка Блэка", но я думаю, они должны весьма громко заявить о себе, чтобы получить свой шанс".

Если вы хотите помочь кампании за возвращение "Тысячелетия" и Фрэнка Блэка громко заявить о себе, прежде всего посетите сайт BackToFrankBlack.com, где вы найдете всю необходимую информацию. Кампания Back To Frank Black по-настоящему международная и глобальная, а потому сайт представлен на пяти языках, в том числе на русском! Единственный действенный способ заставить компанию FOX снять фильм - это написать на студию письмо. О том, как это сделать, где взять образец письма, как пооригинальнее его оформить и на какой адрес отправлять - подробно рассказано на русскоязычной странице сайта BackToFranckBlack.com.

Все последние новости о достижениях кампании вы можете узнать на этом блоге, где самые важные события будут также переводиться и на русский язык. В ближайшем будущем ожидаются эксклюзивные интервью Ланса Хенриксена, Марка Сноу, Сары-Джейн Редмонд и Стивена Миллера в поддержку кампании. Не забывайте время от времени проверять блог.

Если вас это волнует, то время пришло - Вернуть Фрэнка Блэка!

Feo Amante Supports Back To Frank Black

Feo Amante has come out in support of our campaign to bring back Frank Black. Feo hosts an extremely comprehension web site devoted to all manner of Horror, Thriller and Genre topics and we are proud to be associated with it. It is one of the most popular and well respected genre devoted sites on the internet and in a single month alone is likely to receive over 115,000 hits. To check the website or to send your gratitude for his most welcome support, click here!