TV News Briefs: X-Files, Millennium, Vegas, Scrubs, Men in Trees, The Shield and Friday Night Lights

The X-Files — At the William S. Paley Television Festival earlier this week, series creator Chris Carter dropped a few clues about the upcoming movie. The film takes place six years after the last episode and the story is based on a script Carter had written when the series ended. The plot points are under wraps but we will learn what has become of William; the baby of Scully and Mulder who was given up for adoption in the final season. Will he have strange powers? Carter said, “It will not go unconsidered in the movie.” The movie will hit theaters on July 25, 2008. You can check out a larger version of the poster (right) by clicking on the image.

Millennium  — At the same panel, Carter shared that he’s considered making a movie based on the Lance Henriksen series but isn’t sure that it could get made. He said, “We’ve talked about that over the years. Lance would love to do it. I don’t know if it would ever get done. It’s a long shot. It would be fun. I have ideas about how to do it.”

Las Vegas — TV Guide has reported that there’s been a lot of activity regarding a proper wrap-up for the NBC series. Apparently NBC initially asked Vegas creator Gary Scott Thompson to whip up a quick ending for the last episode to hastily wrap up the series. When Thompson reportedly refused, NBC asked him to post something on the network’s website instead. He didn’t go for that either because he felt it would undermine the campaign for a resolution being filmed, including the two-hour movie idea he’s pitched. Neither Thompson or NBC would comment.

Scrubs — Cast and crew are back at work to complete a few scenes for the last of NBC’s pre-strike episodes. Once those are done, they’ll start work on 18 episodes for next season. Since NBC hasn’t officially cancelled the sitcom, ABC can’t announce that the series will move to the alphabet network for 2008-09 just yet. The final NBC episodes kick off on April 10th.

Men in Trees — Because of ABC’s crazy scheduling, the Anne Heche series hasn’t been performing very well this season. ABC has shopped the series to other channels but there’s been no interest. The show’s fate is still up in the air but, if the series isn’t renewed for a third year, the cast and crew have filmed an alternate ending for the final episode of the season.

The Shield — FX hasn’t announced a firm start date for the final season of the Michael Chiklis drama but it should kick-off sometime in September. The cable channel was considering a summer run but opted not to compete with the Olympic games.

Friday Night Lights — Series star Kyle Chandler says that he’s been scheduled to return to Austin in June to start filming the series’ third season. A deal with DirecTV to lighten NBC’s financial costs is almost completed but the details are still under wraps. It’s expected that the network will make an official announcement at its advertiser upfront presentation on April 2nd. Stay tuned!