Attention all sci-fi geeks and music freaks!
The LA Times geekblog, Hero Complex, broke the news early Wednesday morning that Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor is in talks with HBO to produce a two-season maxi-series based on the band’s concept album, Year Zero.
Reznor told Hero Complex during a backstage interview this week that, “It’s the most exciting thing on the horizon, it’s the thing that when I wake up in the morning it makes me say, ‘God it would be cool if that happened.”
But will it happen?
“This is my grand ambition. Will it happen? I don’t know. It was fun sitting and telling [the HBO] guys and watching them shake their head and having writers on board and producers that are in to it. It’s been a fun thing.”
Taking place in a dystopian future where political evils and environmental abuse have left the Earth and its people on the brink of total collapse, last year’s Year Zero was only the first part of a larger story, further revealed through an intricate viral marketing campaign and Alternate Reality Game (ARG), and intended to culminate in a sequel album, telling the second half of the story. Reznor elaborated on his plans for how the various projects would coincide…
“Ideally, we’re trying to get them to do a two-year limited series. I prefer that over a film. We would have a second ARG tying into the second album and ties into the series and they all happen together with a budget needed to pull that all off. There would be a tour down the road. The record completes the story, the ending that no one knows. I know what happens. I knew when I started it. And it’s not what people think. “
As someone who was left hanging in anticipation as the last notes of the album’s ambiguously ominous final track echoed into silence, I couldn’t be more excited to know that the final chapter is on its way.
And as for a potential HBO series based on the album? I’m awestruck by the possibilities. I just keep imagining the show Rome, which also aired on HBO for only two seasons. I imagine the same quality of production… I imagine the same stature of the cast and crew… and I imagine that level of commitment being put into a dark science-fiction story created and backed by the music of my favorite band… and I squeel.
You can read the full article over at Hero Complex, which delves more into the inspirations behind Year Zero and the different mediums (including graphic novel!) that Reznor flirted with before deciding to produce it as an album.
If it was done right, this would be so effing cool. I hope this actually happens.