HBO looks to be embarking on yet another edgy and exciting project as news comes from The Playlist that the channel are joining forces with the BBC to make Year Zero, an adaptation of a concept album by industrial rock outfit Nine Inch Nails.

The album story (which presents a dystopian vision of the United States government in the year 2022) has been in development for some time (with Tarantino’s producer Lawrence Bender on board) but now things are moving forward with a writer attached (Carnivàle scribe Daniel Knauf) and the BBC’s involvement.

Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor is no stranger to this side of the industry himself (having worked on the soundtracks to both Natural Born Killers and Lost Highway) and he also performs co-producing duties (alongside Atticus Ross) on the score for the upcoming David Fincher feature, The Social Network.

Fresh from Avataring and soon to be Clashing with those pesky Titans, Sam Worthington is making a huge name for himself in Hollywood.

He is, therefore, highly sought after and there’s a weird little rumour going around that Universal is looking to cast Worthington in a new vampire film called Dracula: Year Zero. Latino Review have a report from a ‘trusted source’ so make of it what you will, but the source claims that Universal are making D:YZ as a Vlad the Impaler – the Wonder Years, to quote the source,

Like back in Transylvania and sh*t.

Sounds all sorts of crazy, and an odd move for both studio and star if true. With The Wolfman about to howl his face off the Universal Monsters are coming around again, but isn’t a vampire flick a dead horse now? Is there any need to take up the time of a rising star to send him back to the Carpathians to encounter a rampant horde of Ottomen and face defeat, only to discover an ancient power that will help him defeat the opposing armies…but at a price?