It's funny to think that, 10 years ago, Justin Timberlake was just the Jheri Curled fan favorite from the hit boy band 'N Sync. While we might have thought back then that Justin would be around for a long time (and, of course, we were right), we weren't expecting 'N Sync to be long out of commission and Justin to be making quite a name for himself in movies.
Up until now, JTims has been best known for his awesome surprise appearances on "SNL" Digital Shorts (who could have seen "Dick in a Box" ever being an actual song really?) as well as taking secondary roles in "Alpha Dog" and "The Love Guru." He has some pretty big projects coming up, like "The Social Network" and "Yogi Bear," but again, neither has offered him the role of leading man. But it looks like Justin's stars might be changing.
Deadline: Hollywood reported yesterday that Justin in talks to star in the upcoming Screen Gems romantic comedy, "Friends With Benefits." The film will be directed by Will Gluck and the script was written by Keith Merryman and David Newman, though Deadline expects Will to polish up the script.
According to site, the plot follows a headhunter (we're assuming this would be Justin) who recruits a magazine editor, and the two decide to sleep together — no strings attached — because each is too busy to find a significant other. The guy ends up falling for the editor, but things get even more complicated when he finds out she's been dating someone else.
In case you're scratching your head why a new project called "Friends With Benefits" sounds so familiar, we have the answer: this is now the third project being shopped around Hollywood with the same name. Paramount renamed the Ivan Reitman romcom starring Natalie Portman and Ashton Kutcher from "F--kbuddies" to "Friends With Benefits," and NBC just green lit a new comedy written by the guys behind "(500) Days of Summer" and "Wedding Crashers" also called "Friends With Benefits." We'll have to wait and see who really has no strings attached to the title and ends up changing their project's name.
Are you excited to see Justin Timberlake finally star in his own film? What do you think about Hollywood's infatuation with "Friends With Benefits"? Is this a film you're excited to see?
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