Spacey spills 'Edison' beans

Kevin Spacey talks about 'Edison', his final big screen effort before taking a lengthy break from the movies to concentrate on the Old Vic.

Nov 15 2004

If the rumours are to be believed, Kevin Spacey is taking a lengthy breather from the big screen to concentrate on his work as artistic director of the Old Vic theatre.

But before that break he's made a movie called 'Edison', and no, it's not a biopic of light bulb inventor Thomas Edison, but rather a dark thriller about corrupt cops.

'I did about three weeks on the film with my good pal David Burke,' explains Spacey. 'He was one of the head writers on a TV series I did years ago called 'Wiseguy' and this is his first feature. We've remained friends ever since, I read it, thought it was a good story and decided to jump onboard to help him try to get it made.'

The 'Edison' of the title refers to the city in which the story is set, and Spacey plays Levon Wallace, a top investigator for the DA who has to work with a pair of journalists in order to bring down a highly corrupt police unit.

Playing opposite the Space-man is Morgan Freeman (which isn't very strange), LL Cool J (which is slightly strange) and Justin Timberlake (which is very strange indeed).

That's right, the former N-Sync-er has decided to give acting a whirl, and not only is the lad actually making a proper movie with a proper cast, but he's even bagged the lead.

Playing the young reporter at the heart of the film, Spacey says he was suitably impressed by Timberlake's acting chops: 'He's doing fine – I think people are going to be cynical, but he's kind of been acting his whole life – he was on the Mickey Mouse Club for God's sake!

'I think he is smart enough to recognise that the whole pop idol thing is not going to be a lifelong position,' Spacey continues, 'And he wants to try and build himself a career as an actor. I think it's interesting that he's chosen this movie, in which he's surrounded himself with actors as opposed to a vehicle that's designed for him. And he's playing a writer who hasn't proved himself so it's a good part for him, because he's an actor who hasn't proved himself. It's a smart choice.'

There's no word yet as to whether Timberlake will have the opportunity to sing, rap, beatbox or bodypop during proceedings, but playing opposite Keyser Soze himself, he'll certainly have his work cut out holding his own on camera.

And for those who can't wait until next year for Spacey's final big screen performance (for the foreseeable future at least), he can be seen later this month in the eagerly anticipated Bobby Darin biopic 'Beyond the Sea'.

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