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August 13, 1999
X-Files
Star Files Conspiracy Lawsuit
Did Chris Carter sell out David Duchovny in order to get his new Harsh Realm series made by Fox? Or have six years of conspiracy plots on the X-Files finally gotten to Duchovny?
The heartthrob star, who has a share of the hit sci-fi show's profits, is suing 20th Century Fox Film Corp., saying they cheated him out of millions of dollars, says Variety.
Duchovny is also leveling conspiracy charges against series creator and executive producer Carter. The actor claims Carter conspired with Fox to cover up the syndication dealings, and was paid $4 million in hush money and given a series deal for the new fall series Harsh Realm for his compliance. However Carter was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, according to Variety.
The Hollywood trade paper quoted sources as saying Duchovny is seeking at least $25 million in damages, although the suit did not mention a specific sum. Ironically, "Fox" is also the little-used first name of Duchovny's X-Files character, Mulder.
The lawsuit, filed Aug. 10 in the Santa Monica branch of Los Angeles Superior Court, alleged that Fox sold various X-Files rights to its affiliates, such as the Fox broadcast network and FX cable channel, at below-market prices, thereby reducing the series' profitability.
The lawsuit says Fox is guilty of "corporate greed" for not seeking the most competitive deal possible and that its internal syndication deal was an intentional ploy to reduce revenues to profit participants. We're not clear how big Duchovny's slice of the pie is, or why it would behoove Fox to go to such elaborate lengths to cheat the actor out of his share, but then we're not corporate lawyers.
A Fox spokesman told Variety that it was "regrettable that Mr. Duchovny and his representatives have opted to communicate this matter through the press rather than directly with Fox." The paper also said Carter was unavailable for comment.
The show is about to enter its seventh season, the last season for which Duchovny and Carter are contracted. Gillian Anderson, the series' other lead, has a contract which, curiously, runs an additional year. The Hollywood Reporter says Duchovny earns $200,000 an episode.
The bridges-burning lawsuit doesn't bode well for the future of the X-Files franchise. Duchovny and co-star Anderson have both indicated interest in continuing to make feature films reprising their Mulder and Scully characters, after the plug is pulled on the TV show. There's no love lost between those two either, apparently, as both have snubbed and dissed each other frequently over the years.
This kind of suit is not precedent-setting however. The producers of Home Improvement filed a similar suit against ABC, and Alan Alda, who shared in profits from the M*A*S*H series, also brought a suit against Fox, which airs reruns of the medical drama on its FX channel. Both cases were settled before trial.
