Throng

8:30pm Tuesday, November 10 on TV2

Justin Timberlake makes his acting debut in TV2's Blockbuster Tuesday movie, the gritty crime thriller, Edison.

The growing metropolis of Edison seems to hold promise for all, but the young and ambitious journalist Josh Pollack (Timberlake) must begin at the bottom. Though he'd rather launch his career as an investigative reporter at The Times, he's reduced to writing uninteresting pieces at the Heights Herald, a community paper. But Pollack soon begins to uncover police corruption on a massive scale in the town of Edison.

After his life is threatened, he joins forces with his cynical mentor Moses Ashford (Morgan Freeman, The Shawshank Redemption), as well as an investigator for the district attorney's office (Kevin Spacey, American Beauty), in order to take on the criminal element in the force, which has until now been implicitly sanctioned.

According to Timberlake's co-star, Oscar winner Kevin Spacey, the young popstar was determined to make a good job of his first acting role.

"Justin was very serious about taking this role on," Spacey tells BBC Radio 1. "I think it was smart of him to take on the role of a journalist who hasn't proved himself yet, and I think he's being smart about wanting to carve out a career for himself after this pop idol stuff is done."

Although David Burke, the movie's writer and director, had previously worked on television shows like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, he had never made a feature film prior to Edison, which made it all the more astonishing that he managed to assemble such a high-profile cast.

Having experienced actors in the line-up made his feature debut shoot somewhat easier, Burke says, as it allowed him to spend more time with Timberlake, working on his performance.

"Justin is spectacular," Burke says, explaining that the singer worked hard to be able to stand "toe to toe" with Freeman and Spacey. "I think his performance will surprise a lot of people."