May 20, 2019
Reznor & Ross Score HBO’s WATCHMEN TV Series – Premieres This Fall
– Randall D. Larson
Who’s watching?
Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (who became a member of the band in 2016 after working with Reznor on several film scores) have scored HBO’s forthcoming superhero drama series, WATCHMEN. The ten-episode series is based on the famed graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (made into a feature film by Zach Snyder in 2009). The HBO series was created by Damon Lindelof, who also wrote the pilot and executive produced the series. Lindelof has reported that the series will not be a direct adaptation of or sequel to the Moore/Gibbons book, but will comprise an original story that takes place after the events of the original Watchmen narrative.
“Set in an alternate history where ‘superheroes’ are treated as outlaws, WATCHMEN embraces the nostalgia of the original groundbreaking graphic novel of the same name while attempting to break new ground of its own,” HBO reports on the series’ exclusive website. The show is set to premiere in the fall of 2019.
When they first heard of the project, Reznor and Ross reached out to Damon and HBO. “I’ve been a fan of Damon since LOST,” Reznor told Variety’s Chris Willman last October, as they were beginning to work on the show. “I was completely blown away by THE LEFTOVERS. Also, as a big fan of WATCHMEN [in other incarnations], I appreciated the fearlessness that taking on that property… I thought, if anybody was to do it at any place, HBO and Damon sounds exciting to me. I’ve never done TV, but needless to say, it’s been a great several years for television, and long-form storytelling is exciting. So I told our agent, ‘Hey, let him know that we’d be definitely interested in working on that.’ The next thing I know, we’re in a meeting with Damon, and we were all-in.
“For WATCHMEN we’ve had the challenge of working almost blind, off a bit of a script for the first episode of 10. But we spent enough time with Damon to know that we’re kindred spirits.”
Read the full Variety interview, “How the NIN Masterminds Balance Scoring and Touring,” here.
Watch HBO’s teaser trailer, set to the creepy music of Reznor and Ross, which augments the tension seem throughout:
