Justin Timberlake Bringing Geek Back in “The Social Network”

Justin Timberlake's role in "The Social Network" is loaded with fantastic irony. He not only plays the founder of Napster, the representation of online music piracy -- but he also plays the baddest egghead you can ever imagine.

Justin's a long way from the man responsible for bringing "Sexy Back."

"He plays the King of the Geeks," co-star Joe Mazzello tells PopcornBiz. "He kind of plays the coolest geek you can find in the geek world."

But a geek nonetheless.

As Napster founder Sean Parker, Timberlake's Parker walks with an attitude which has the fellow brainiacs in the film envious, including Mazzello's character, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.

"(Parker) was a legend in the hacker community. A Christ figure for all of these guys," says Mazzello. "He comes in and tries to take over a little bit."

"To the computer nerds he's very cool. To everyone else, he probably isn't."

Timberlake's performance is already garnering tremendous buzz for the movie due out in October.

Jessie Eisenberg, who stars as controversial Facebook supremo Mark Zuckerberg, tells PopcornBiz that the humor of Timberlake playing the founder of Napster was not lost on anyone.

"It's great irony," he says. "But the main reason he was cast is that he's really right for the role. The obvious irony was really secondary to him being really great in this."
 

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