After Chris Carter's success with "The X-Files", the Fox Broadcasting Company asked him if he would produce another series for them. He already had an idea for creating a show based around the coming millennium of the year 2000, and it was this idea that he followed up. The Fox executives gave Carter a budget of nearly $1.5 million per episode, and allowed him to create his own "look" for the show. Carter has said he was influenced by the Holy Bible, Dostoyevsky and Mary Shelley in planning the series. Carter pitched "Millennium" to Fox as ""Seven" in Seattle." The setting of a dark, rain-soaked city and a world-weary detective's hunt for a religiously inspired serial killer have clear parallels with the pilot episode. One of the show's working titles was "2000", though "Millennium" was chosen.