Trent Reznor wants nothing more than to continue his Year Zero concept into a new medium, preferably series television. “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,” expresses the Nine Inch Nails mastermind of his ambition.
As stated in an earlier Fishpork news post, Trent Reznor’s Year Zero concept may be developed beyond the album and into a TV series, which he prefers to a film or graphic novel. ”That was the route we were going to go with initially. We talked to a different companies about releasing it. But it didn’t feel quite right. We thought about a film, but that has a different timetable and too many people need to say yes. That wouldn’t line up right. then I started thinking about how I could make it really interactive, something you experience rather than something you read.”
In the most exciting news of all, the LA Times is reporting that Reznor officially pitched the idea to HBO two weeks ago. “Ideally, we’re trying to get them to do a two-year limited series. I prefer that over a film, ” Reznor says of his intentions. So how is HBO responding to the idea of putting Reznor’s concept of a dark world 15 years into the future that has been devastated politically, religiously and environmentally? Reznor reports, “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.”
The project has breathed new and exciting life. HBO is known for creating some of the most critically acclaimed series that television has ever seen (Six Feet Under, The Wire, The Sopranos, etc). Unleashing Reznor’s concept of a post-Bush era would add another significant notch to their belt. As for Reznor, he also plans to finish the concept with a second album and another tour. “There would be (another) tour down the road. The (second) 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.”
For more information on the Year Zero Concept, check out 42 Entertainment’s Case Study here.
