Jan. 9, 2007

The last time the Hitlist spoke to Justin Timberlake it was regarding his new movie "Alpha Dog," which had just premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. New Line was scheduled to release the picture that spring and the world knew nothing of infectious rhythms of "bringing sexy back." A year later, Timberlake has four Grammy nominations for his latest album, while "Dog" has a new distributor (Universal) and is finally hitting screens. The reasons for the delay are many, but as Timberlake sits down for a press conference in New York to discuss the movie, there is relief that it's finally coming out. Unfortunately, it seems the East Coast press isn't as enamored with the pic as festival audiences were oh so long ago. Their first question for Timberlake: Why are your character and others in the film so repulsive?

"I don't think the point was for the characters to be repulsive," Timberlake says. "I think the point was to show the truth of what was happening. It's a tough movie to watch, but this is as close to what happened as we could make it."

And sadly, the Hitlist has observed that the true story behind "Dog" doesn't seem to resonate with people who haven't lived in Southern California. But then again, the idea that a bunch of spoiled, drug dealing suburban teenagers, who end up kidnapping the younger brother of someone they had a dispute with, may sound a tad unbelievable. Except that it did happen almost seven years ago in the outskirts of Los Angeles County.

Many people have approached Timberlake about his involvement in the movie only to add that they "knew" the people it was immediately based on. He quickly realized it was an astonishing example of how young people converse with each other in today's society.

"You could tell immediately that half of the people who would come up to you ... knew nothing about it," Timberlake says. "All they knew was that the kid was kidnapped and murdered, but they were always like, 'Oh yeah, I knew him.' I found it interesting that in his infamy, he became this weird tall tale for young people who were in some way wanting to be involved with it."

Timberlake's role as a reluctant conspirator to the act is essential to the film, and moviegoers will be pleasantly surprised how well he holds his own here.

"For me it was attractive to just be involved with great actors and great directors and great material and that's what led me to this film," Timberlake says.

And with good early buzz surrounding his next picture, Craig Brewer's "Black Snake Moan," J.T.'s fans should expect more intriguing turns from their idol on down the road. Let's just hope they all don't drag out like "Dog" has.