This is clearly the era of ambitious television. But can Trent Reznor's miniseries project Year Zero, based on his concept album and online ARG about a futuristic dystopia, really happen? Maybe so, because the musician's project continues to churn forward.


It's been a long time since we've heard anything about Year Zero, the futuristic miniseries based on a collection of Reznor's ideas. From what we know about this project the series is set in the year 2022, with the US in the midst of a nuclear war with Iran. The homeland has been all but destroyed due to terrorist attacks and the government agency The Bureau of Morality rules with an iron fist. Reznor's first pitch to HBO was for Year Zero was for a two year miniseries. And in this recent interview with the LA Times, it sounds like the project is still on track, but in the early gestation period, with HBO and the BBC possibly collaborating. Reznor explains:

"We are in [the development phase of] pre-production with HBO and BBC [Worldwide Productions] to do a miniseries...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."


And even though it's still early, he assembled a pretty impressive crew to help build Year Zero. Lawrence Bender, producer of Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds, and Roswell producer Kevin Kelly Brown are both involved in production. Plus Carnivale scribe Daniel Knauf is working on the rough draft, along with the "overall world Bible." Let's hope this show can live up to HBO's recent impressive TV productions!