Consolidated 'Edison'

Image credit: Justin Timberlake: Kevin Winter/Getty Images/NewsCom

'JUSTIFIED' Timberlake will next make news with Freeman and Spacey

Justin Timberlake is about to rip the lid off a major scandal, one that doesn't involve him and Janet Jackson. He's about to star in his first major movie role, playing an inexperienced reporter who uncovers a police scandal, in ''Edison,'' his publicist tells the Associated Press.

Starring opposite the Grammy-winning singer will be such acting heavyweights as Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey, as well as fellow pop-star-turned-thespian LL Cool J.

According to MTV News, in ''Edison,'' Timberlake's character pursues the story with the help of his Pulitzer Prize-winning editor (Freeman) and an investigator from the district attorney's office (Spacey). Also involved is an ethically torn cop (LL Cool J) who joins the elite police unit at the heart of the scandal. The independent film, which begins shooting in early March in Vancouver, marks the feature/writing directing debut of ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' writer/producer David J. Burke.

Timberlake, who was once reportedly on the list for the role of Jimmy Olsen in the now-in-limbo Superman movie, will prep for his cub reporter role by following a real journalist on a daily beat, producer Randall Emmett tells MTV, though the reporter's identity is being kept secret so as to enable the journalist to do his/her job without being tracked by paparazzi.

Otherwise, Timberlake apparently believes he is well prepared to hold the screen opposite the likes of Freeman and Spacey. Even though his only previous movie experience is a cameo in fellow 'N Syncer Lance Bass' 2001 movie, ''On the Line,'' Timberlake is not intimidated, publicist Ken Sunshine tells the Associated Press: ''Justin's 22. I don't think anybody has handled the kind of success he's had in their 22 years better than he has.''