It’s not TV, it’s NIN

According to the LA Times, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor is in talks to bring his politically charged “Year Zero” to HBO as a 2-season series. 

The story of Year Zero has so far been released in 2 formats; first, as the 2007 Nine Inch Nails album of the same name, and second, as an Alternate Reality Game  consisting of a variety of media and forms of communication that expanded upon the album’s storyline.

According to Wikipedia, “The Year Zero story takes place in the United States in the year 2022; or “Year 0″ according to the American government, being the year that America was reborn. The United States has suffered several major terrorist attacks, and in response the government has seized absolute control on the country and reverted to a Christian fundamentalist theocracy. The government maintains control of the populace through institutions such as the Bureau of Morality and the First Evangelical Church of Plano, as well as increased surveillance and the secret drugging of tap water with a mild sedative. In response to the increasing oppression of the government, several corporate, government, and subversive websites were transported back in time to the present by a group of scientists working clandestinely against the authoritarian government. The websites-from-the-future were sent to the year 2007 to warn the American people of the impending dystopian future and to prevent it from ever forming in the first place.”

The idea of a series came about after the ideas of a graphic novel and a movie were scrapped. Says Reznor, “We talked to a different companies about releasing [a comic]. 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.”

NO one knows for sure whether the show will ever come to fruition, but when asked how the pitch with HBO went, he responded, “It went great.”

The idea also includes an additional ARG for the second album.

My fingers are crossed for this one. One can never have too much Trent Reznor in one’s life.

Hopefully we’ll see this happen soon.