Timberlake joins Diaz on Columbia comedy Bad Teacher

Timberlake will play a key role as a substitute teacher who happens to be the scion of a watchmaking dynasty. Molly Shannon, Lucy Punch and Eric Stonestreet have also joined the project.

Jake Kasdan will commence principal photography later this month from a screenplay by Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky. Mosaic’s Jimmy Miller is producing.

“With Justin, Molly and Eric, joining Cameron, Jason, Lucy and the rest of this dream comedy cast, we couldn’t be more excited about this movie,” Doug Belgrad, who serves as president of Columbia Pictures alongside Matt Tolmach, said.

“We love what we’ve seen of Justin’s performance in David Fincher’s The Social Network and he is a perfect match for this role.”

Belgrad and Jonathan Kadin are overseeing for Columbia. Timberlake is represented in film by Rick Yorn, Jennifer Davisson Killoran, WME and Ziffren Brittenham LLP.