Shortly after posting a series of articles on XFilesNews, I was contacted by the Back To Frank Black campaign. After I looked into the website, I discovered that much like XFilesNews they are dedicated to resurrecting a production of Chris Carter's Ten Thirteen Productions. In this case, the site wants to see the return of Frank Black, the protagonist from Millennium, to our screens in one way or another. So who are the people behind the site, what exactly do they want and, perhaps more importantly, what is it the campaign is doing to get the attention of 20th Century Fox?
Back To Frank Black
The website reports on select news about the current activities of the cast and crew of Millennium and posts updates on their campaign to convince Fox to bring back the character of Frank Black. However, there is something quite distinctive about the campaign, namely the fact that Lance Henriksen (who played the character of Frank Black for three years on Millennium) is a big supporter of the site and has since late 2009 been involved in staff meetings. The site also enjoys the support of countless cast and crew members of the television series who want to see Millennium resurrected in one form or another, the most notable being Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz.
The People Behind The Site
There are a number of people working behind the scenes, ranging from contributors to the site, consultants to the campaign right on down to the two Project Managers who are running the campaign; James McLean and Troy Foreman.
- James McLean serves as one of the two Project Managers for Back To Frank Black. He began the campaign back in 2008, having been inspired by meeting Lance Henriksen at a Manchester signing. James is a freelance UK illustrator who has supplied work for television, video games, advertising, books and magazines – including illustrations for Doctor Who, Star Wars, Horrid Henry and High School Musical.
- Troy Foreman also serves as one of the two Project Managers for Back To Frank Black. He joined the Back To Frank Black campaign back in 2009 after having interviewed James McLean for his podcast, The Darkside Vibe. The two struck it off during the interview and James asked Troy to join the campaign, where one of his first actions was to create the Millennium Group Sessions podcast. Alongside James, Troy is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the campaigns website.
The Early Years
The site launched in September 2008, after Back To Frank Black founder, James McLean, was motivated to do so after having seen Lance Henriksen where he seemed to indicate that the character of Frank Black would soon return. The main focus of the campaign at this stage was writing letters to Fox to prove that there is an audience who wants to see the return of Frank Black. After having been up and running for only a month, the website scored its first interview with Lance Henriksen in which he stated that he felt that the return of Frank Black “is a real possibility.” Following this, the site continued to expand and launched its Facebook and Twitter pages, before scoring an interview with the Science Fiction magazine SciFi Now.
In 2009, the campaign launched a T-Shirt store, enabling fans to support the campaign and express their desire for the return of Frank Black. When I asked, I was informed that proceeds from the sales of the T-Shirts have gone to finance the hosting of the site and other promotional materials for the campaign such as flyers. A few months later, James is interviewed by Troy Foreman for his podcast series, The Darkside Vibe. Following the interview, James asked Troy to join the campaign and one of his first actions was to create a distinctive series of podcasts for Back To Frank Black, know as the Millennium Group Sessions podcast, which launched on May 4, 2009. In one such podcast, Frank Spotnitz (an executive producer on the television series and long-time collaborator of series creator Chris Carter) is interviewed and he states that he is very keen to return to Millennium. The campaign is later contacted by Fox and asked to direct any letters from their campaign to a generic PO box. Chris Carter then comes out and says he would not ‘rule out’ a return to Millennium.
Between 2009 and 2010 the site continued to grow and amassed support from a wide range of people involved with the production of Millennium. The campaign is able to score interviews from Klea Scott, James Wong and Glen Morgan with all three expressing support for the campaign. Series composer Mark Snow and director/producer Thomas Wright also expressed support for the campaign around the same time. In 2010, representatives of the campaign, and Lance Henriksen himself, are interviewed on the Nick Digilio WGN Radio Show about the possible return of Frank Black. Then, in a podcast that was posted on Christmas Day 2010, the campaign scored a major coup when they were able to bring together Lance Henriksen, Megan Gallagher and Britany Tiplady to talk about the show.
Make or Break Podcast
In January 2011, Troy and James were able to swing an interview with Lance Henriksen, Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz. In this so called “make or break podcast”, all three men expressed support for the campaign and said that they believed that the character of Frank Black could return to the screen as he is still a relevant character in todays world. However, all three remained quiet with regard to any specific story they would want to tell. In this podcast, the desire that the return of Frank Black be in the form of a “television event” was expressed and Chris Carter suggested that the campaign target the cable network FX.
It was following this interview that the campaign re-focused and opted to adopt a two pronged approach in which they would continue to write to 20th Century Fox, while now also writing to FX to ask the network to commission a “television event” in which Frank Black would return. After asking their followers to send letters to FX, the cable channel contacted the campaign and asked them to send any further correspondence to a generic PO Box. FX also discussed the likelihood of them commissioning a Millennium project at the same time.
The Campaign Continues
While the people behind the site continue to push writing letters to both Fox and FX, they are also releasing a book in 2012. Back To Frank Black: The Book, is being published by Fourth Horseman Press (a publishing house which is run by two people who are on the staff of the campaign). In short, the book promises a wealth of information on Millennium from the people behind the series, it will also include behind the scenes information obtained through exclusives interviews and discuss the potential future of the series. Both Lance Henriksen and Brittany Tiplady are in discussions with Fourth Horseman Press to provide material for the book.
The hope is that the book will generate some interest from fans who are currently unaware of the campaign. That said, both James and Troy are more than aware that the campaign to bring Frank Black back would always be an uphill struggle and both of them believe that any movement on this may be predicated on a third X-Files film being commissioned and in turn its success at the box office. So in James McLean’s own words, “the campaign won’t stop until Frank Black comes back!”
