Justin Timberlake Will Play Music Producer Neil Burton In Spinning Gold

Justin Timberlake's been one of the most important people in entertainment since he was a teenager, and every time you think he's peaked in one area or another, he starts succeeding somewhere else. He hasn't made an album in 2006, but in the meantime has proven himself as both an Oscar-caliber actor (in The Social Network) and a box office draw (in Friends With Benefits). Now he's taking that power and making a movie familiar to a lot of popular actors: he's becoming a producer.

Boardwalk Entertainment Group announced today that Timberlake will produce and star in Spinning Gold, a biopic of music producer Neil Bogart, who launched the careers of 70s music icons like KISS, Donna Summer and the Village People. Bogart died at just 39 years old of cancer, but before he did he founded Boardwalk Records, which became a Boardwalk Entertainment Group which is now Boardwalk Films, the producers of Spinning Gold. The movie will be written by Bogart's son Timothy Scott Bogart, and co-produced by Evan "Kidd" Bogart, so you can probably tell this won't be an especially critical or harsh look at Bogart's career.

But given that Bogart is rarely included in the list of great music producer moguls in history, that doesn't seem like such a problem. It's rare that Hollywood takes a nostalgic look back at the music industry of the 70s, and depending on how you feel about disco, it might be high time to revisit that era. Haven't you wanted a reason to bust out your old Donna Summer vinyls anyway?

Here's the full press release for the film if you want to know more.

LOS ANGELES – Sept. 26, 2011 – Grammy® and Emmy® award winner Justin Timberlake has signed on to star in the feature film Spinning Gold from Boardwalk Films, a division of Boardwalk Entertainment Group. The movie also marks Timberlake’s first venture as a feature producer. Timothy Scott Bogart, who also is penning the script, Evan “Kidd” Bogart, and Gary A. Randall, founding partners of Boardwalk Entertainment Group, also will produce. Rick Yorn is Executive Producer.

Additionally, Boardwalk Records is producing the album in conjunction with the movie, including classic hits reimagined by today’s biggest artists.

Spinning Gold chronicles the life of music legend Neil Bogart, the late father of Tim and Evan, who founded Casablanca Records in 1974 and is credited with discovering, launching and nurturing the careers of a generation of music superstars. KISS, Parliament, Donna Summer, and The Village People were just a few of the acts on the roster of Casablanca Records, whose sound andimage would come to define 70s pop culture.

Boardwalk Entertainment Group partner, producer and screenwriter, Tim Bogart, said, “This movie is literally three decades in the making, but we knew that without the perfect actor to bring our father to life on film, his essence and impact on the lives and careers he inspired would never be fully captured – from the moment we met Justin, we knew we’d found our Neil Bogart. With Justin also a producer on the movie, together we're crafting this 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. Though he died at only 39, he lived to see all his dreams come true.”