UPDATE: Justin Timberlake is no longer part of this film. Read more here.
Eight years after Justin Timberlake signed on, a biopic about larger-than-life music executive Neil Bogart will start production in Canada.
iHeartRadio.ca has learned that cameras will roll on Spinning Gold in Montreal this summer.
Timberlake is expected to portray Bogart, the founder of Casablanca Records who is credited with launching acts like Gladys Knight, Kiss, Donna Summer, The Village People, Lipps, Inc., and Parliament.
Bogart died of cancer in 1982 at 39.
Timberlake and Bogart’s son Timothy, who wrote the screenplay and will direct, sought financing for the film at Cannes in 2013. At one point in its development, Spike Lee was in talks to direct.
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In 2017, Timberlake told Screen Daily he was optimistic the film would get made. “We’ve been trying to chip away at it. I’m not sure how we want to go about it so right now we’ve been just chipping away at the material, working on the script, having conversations.”
In Spinning Gold, Casablanca Records co-founders Cecil Holmes, Buck Reingold and Larry Harris will be played by Chris Rock, Zach Braff and Dan Fogler respectively.
Michelle Monaghan has signed on to portray Bogart’s high school sweetheart and first wife Elizabeth Weiss.
The cast also includes real-life singers portraying iconic ones. Kirk Franklin will play the late gospel star Edwin Hawkins and Jazmine Sullivan is set to play soul legend Gladys Knight.
More casting details will be announced soon.