Nine Inch Nails are the subject of a big GQ cover story today (Al Jourgensen would never!) in which they reveal so many new plans. The story also gets into the partnership between Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who became a sort of mentor in sobriety for Reznor when they were becoming friends, including their Oscar-winning career as film composers.

The story has lots of great detail about how Reznor has changed with age, how he collaborates with Ross during daily Monday-Friday sessions in the studio behind Reznor’s home, the way he draws on the friendship for his mental health, etc. There’s also a tangent about Reznor’s experience working as an Apple executive. But let me summarize all the creative ventures the duo has coming up.

A new Nine Inch Nails album? Yes, eventually. “I do feel excited about starting on the next record,” Ross says late in the story. “I think we’re in a place now where we kind of have an idea.” Scores for Luca Guadagnino’s erotic Queer (they just scored his Zendaya-starring Challengers too) and Scott Derrickson’s sci-fi The Gorge. A production company with longtime art director John Crawford and producer Jonathan Pavesi geared toward “homegrown IP around Nine Inch Nails, stories we could tell” — not a biopic, Reznor clarifies.

They’re working on a TV show with The Bear creator Christopher Storer and a movie with horror director Mike Flanagan. There’s a T-shirt line with an unnamed designer on the way too. (Will it feature any color whatsoever? “No,” Reznor assures us. “Of course not.”) Also a music festival “where we’re going to debut as performing as composers along with a roster of other interesting people.” And an extended reality gaming experience in partnership with Epic Games. Per Reznor, “It’s what Zuckerberg was trying to bullshit us into calling the metaverse. You can’t say that word any more, but in terms of the tool kit, thinking about it through the lens of what could be possible for artists and experiences, we thought that would be an interesting way to tell a story through that.”

I also thought this quote from Reznor was notable: “We sit in here every day. And a portion of the time organically becomes us just figuring out who we are as people and processing life and a kind of therapy session. And in those endless hours it’s come up: why do we want to do this? And the reason is because we both feel the most in touch with God and fulfilled.”