NetflixNine Inch Nails soundtracks one of the episodes in the just-premiered fifth season of Black Mirror. Well, sort of.
In the episode titled “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too,” Miley Cyrus plays a purple-haired pop star who unveils a mini-robot version of herself called Ashley Too. Each of the songs Cyrus’ character sings in the episode is a Nine Inch Nails track reworked into a pop song.
At a press screening for the new season, Black Mirror showrunners Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones revealed that Trent Reznor gave the idea his blessing, NME reports.
“Every song that she performs is a Nine Inch Nails song that we adapted into a pop standard,” Brooker said. “That’s one thing that was in the script quite early on, but we had to get permission from Trent Reznor to do that and rewrite some of his tracks as upbeat pop songs.”
According to Brooker, Reznor “got it straight away” and gave his approval.
“It was via email and he was really happy,” Brooker said. “He wanted to see the script and I got to rewrite his lyrics in a chirpy way.”
For example, towards the end of the episode, Cyrus’ character sings a new version of the NIN classic “Head Like a Hole” with the lyric “I’m stoked on ambition and verve” in place of “You’re gonna get what you deserve.”
“He thought it was all very funny,” Jones added of Reznor. “He found all of the dark comedy very entertaining.”
Black Mirror season five premiered Wednesday on Netflix.
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