Richmond linked to two hit films

By Daniel Neman and Melissa Ruggieri
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Published: July 29, 2008

If you look closely at two of this summer’s movies, you’ll find a little bit of Richmond.

In one memorable scene of the year’s biggest movie so far, “The Dark Knight,“ a jailed thug complains of a stomachache. A closer inspection reveals that, in fact, he has had a bomb implanted in his torso, which leads to his abrupt and unhappy end.

The actor playing the thug, Aidan Feore, is originally from Richmond. The son of Colman and Janet Feore, he went to Collegiate School. After graduation, Feore studied theater at the College of Charleston. He now lives and works in London.

And viewers of “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” may come to the conclusion that Fox Mulder and Dana Scully actually live in Richmond. Mulder, who is played by David Duchovney, is twice seen cutting articles out of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Scully, played by Gillian Anderson, goes to visit a sex-offenders compound in Richmond, and it does not take her long to get there.

In a side note, when Mulder looks up a number in his cell phone, the first name on the list is Gilligan. Presumably, that is an inside reference to former Richmonder Vince Gilligan, who was a longtime writer and executive producer on the “X-Files” television show.

Gilligan is back in theaters himself this summer, as writer of the superhero comedy hit “Hancock,“ starring Will Smith.