Justin Timberlake to Play Record Executive Neil Bogart in New Biopic

Source: Deadline

by Ethan Anderton

Though he's yet to turn in a truly stellar performance, you can't deny that recording artist turned actor Justin Timberlake has shown some decent acting chops with roles in films like Friends with Benefits, Alpha Dog and The Social Network, not to mention a forthcoming turn as an action star for In Time. Now it sounds like a potential milestone in the actor's career is on the way, and it involves him returning to his music roots somewhat. Deadline has word that Timberlake will star in Spinning Gold, a biopic on record producer Neil Bogart, the co-founder of Casablanca Records and pillar of the 70's music scene. Read on!

Timberlake will also produce the film telling the story of Bogart's life as a poor Jewish kid from Brooklyn who would grow up to launch the careers of such iconic recording artists as Kiss, Donna Summer, The Village People and plenty of other disco stars. Neil's son Timothy Scott Bogart will produce the film (along with his brother Evan "Kidd" Bogart and TV producer Garry Randall) and he says, "This is saga about a young dreamer who started with nothing and came of age in the 60s and 70s, believing anything was possible and every risk was worth taking.” As for Timberlake's casting, he comments "When Justin walked into the room, that was the moment I had been waiting for 29 years. He has the exact same energy as my father, the same glimmer in his eye.”

The film won't require Timberlake to age much since the record executive sadly died of cancer in 1982 at just 39-years old. No director is attached yet, but the search is underway with a major studio-size budget coming from independent financiers. Boardwalk Films (a division of the Bogart brothers' Boardwalk Entertainment Group) plans to start production before the end of 2012 and will even release an album in conjunction with the film. Considering this project is staying within the family, there shouldn't be any problem securing the rights to the tunes of the very musicians Neil Bogart made famous.