"The big project on the horizon" for Zombie is his next horror film project, "The Lords of Salem," which he'll write and direct in conjunction with producers of the hit "Paranormal Activity." "They came to me and wanted to work together," Zombie tells class="ilad1">Billboard.com. "I've been thinking about the music in this movie early, early on," he says. They were like, 'If you want to make a movie, if you have an idea we will give you complete control over casting, the script, the final cut of the picture -- everything. Nobody hears that. You can't tour and make movies at the same time, obviously, but you can do some of the other things at the same time, so we're going to try it.". Everything's a battle, but these guys were like, 'That'll be our deal with you.' And I was like, 'Great!' "

"The Lords of Salem" is drawn from an idea Zombie had some years back about witches executed in the 17th and 18th centuries who return to Salem, Mass., in the present day. "I didn't even have an idea at the time. I always found it fascinating, so I started writing an idea about.this group of five witches that were killed back then and have come back to modern day Salem to seek revenge." Zombie is just starting to work on "The Lords of Salem" script and expects to being production in late March or early April. "We'll probably do the score this time out -- not rock music, but a score. I used to break it all down, go do a movie and then come back to [the music], but now we're gonna try to keep it all kind of going at the same time. "I grew up in Massachusetts," Zombie says, "so the Salem witch trials and all that was always very prevalent. Even when I was a little kid, you take a school field trip and go to Salem to the witch museums and watch re-enactments of the witch trials.

"I didn't even have an idea at the time. They were like, 'If you want to make a movie, if you have an idea we will give you complete control over casting, the script, the final cut of the picture -- everything.  I used to break it all down, go do a movie and then come back to [the music], but now we're gonna try to keep it all kind of going at the same time. He's also hoping to involve his current band in the film's soundtrack. "It's been one of those things that we've slowly been building back up to over the years because I'd kind of gotten away from it," Zombie acknowledges.

 With more touring ahead -- including a to-be-announced European trek and a run with Iron Maiden on Australia's Soundwave Festival in February and March -- Zombie and company are also starting work on the follow-up to "Hellbilly Deluxe 2," though he says that "we're basically like, 'We need to start planning.'

As for other Zombie projects, the "Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses in 3-D ZombieVision" maze is running through October at Universal Studios theme parks in Florida and California.  Just out is a special edition of his latest album, "Hellbilly Deluxe 2," featuring a cover of Cooper's "School's Out" among its extras, as well as single- and double-disc "Icon" retrospectives. The shock-rocker is currently co-headlining a Halloween Hootenanny tour with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee Alice Cooper through Oct.20.  -morenewsnow.com