‘Year Zero’ Coming To HBO?

Nine Inch Nails’ “Year Zero” is getting closer to being transformed into a TV mini-series thanks to a collaboration between Trent Reznor and HBO.

The 2007 release is a dystopian concept album that takes place in the year 2022.

“What’s it about? …. Things are not good. If you imagine a world where greed and power continue to run their likely course, you’ll have an idea of the backdrop,” Reznor explained in the CD’s liner notes. “The world has reached the breaking point – politically, spiritually and ecologically. Written from various perspectives of people in this world, Year Zero examines various viewpoints set against an impending moment of truth.”

Photo: Doug Seymour

Aragon Ballroom, Chicago, Ill.

Back in 2007 Reznor told U.K. newspaper The Sun that progress was being made on bringing Year Zero’s alternate reality to the small screen. The musician said he was about to pitch the concept to a network after getting a producer on board and meeting with writers.

The Los Angeles Times’ Hero Complex blog reports that Reznor is now working out a deal with HBO and BBC Worldwide Productions.

“We are in [the development phase of] pre-production with HBO and BBC [Worldwide Productions] to do a miniseries,” Reznor said. “It’s exciting. I probably shouldn’t say too much about it except that I understand that there’s a thousand hurdles before anything shows up in your TV listing. It’s been an interesting and very educational process and it cleared the HBO hurdle a few months ago and now we’re writing drafts back and forth. So it’s very much alive and incubating at the moment.

“BBC [Worldwide Productions] was the first to show interest and came on as the studio. Our writer is Daniel Knauf from ‘Carnivàle’ and he’s busy with pages right now and revising the overall world Bible [of Year Zero]. It’s been an interesting collaborative effort but I’ve learned that [television development] moves at a glacial pace.”

The Hero Complex notes that Lawrence Bender, who produced “Pulp Fiction,” “Inglourious Basterds” and “Reservoir Dogs” as well as “An Inconvenient Truth,” is producing the sci-fi mini-series along with Kevin Kelly Brown, the executive producer on “Roswell.”

Click here for the Hero Complex post.