Names and faces

Justin Timberlake, so often shuttling between movies and music, for once didn’t have to choose. In the film Inside Llewyn Davis, Timberlake plays a supporting roleas a cheery, sweater-wearing 1960s folk musician. But he also collaborated with producer T Bone Burnett on the movie’s memorable period songs. “It’s the first time that I’ve gotten to kind of do a lot of things that I love to do at the same time,” Timberlake said. “It will always be a milestone for me to get to write, sing, act and bring it all together.” Inside Llewyn Davis opened nationally Friday. Timberlake, meanwhile, is in the midst of touring for his album The 20/20 Experience, his Grammy-nominated return to music after a spell in movies like The Social Network.And this weekend, he’s the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, where the former Mouseketeer first revealed his comedy chops. The folk revival music of Inside Llewyn Davis is quite a distance from Timberlake’s “Suit and Tie” or “My Love,” but Burnett doesn’t think much of genre divisions. “He’s from Memphis,” Burnett said. “He’s an R&B singer, basically. But he’s got a beautiful voice, and he’s got incredible tone, and he can sing anything he wants to. A song is a song.”

Harry Potter has traveled from page to screen- and now to stage. Author J.K. Rowling said Friday that she is working on a play about the boy wizard’s life before he attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Rowling’s seven-book saga begins when Harry, an unloved orphan grudgingly raised by his aunt and uncle, receives a letter informing him he is a wizard. Rowling said in a statement that the play will “explore the previously untold story of Harry’s early years as an orphan and outcast.” Rowling will be a co-producer on the show, along with veteran British theater producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender. The statement said Rowling will collaborate with a writer but will not write the script herself. A writer and director have yet to be chosen for the show, which will be developed in Britain next year. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels have sold more than 450 million copies around the world and were adapted into eight Warner Bros. feature films.

Front Section, Pages 2 on 12/21/2013

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