The 411 on Justin Timberlake’s new adventure game show
By Rebecca Ford
MetromixApril 20, 2009
(Credit: MTV/Mark Mainz)
Most of the time, your phone rings and it’s your mom telling you to make something of yourself. But every once in a while, your phone rings and it’s a mysterious voice recruiting you into a high-stakes adventure game.
MTV and executive producer Justin Timberlake are taking viewers on a relentless ride with their new show, “The Phone.” The six episode series is a competition that simulates what it would be like for viewers to be dropped into the middle of a thrilling adventure movie. (Remember that Michael Douglas flick, “The Game”?)
“‘The Phone’ is a high-intensity game show where we take four real-life people, not actors… and we thrust them into physical and mental nightmare,” Timberlake said in a trailer for the series.
Each week, the lives of four strangers are interrupted by a phone call where a mysterious voice invites them to participate in the game. If they choose yes by pressing “1” on their cell phones, the new contestants begin to trigger dangerous events that propel them into their adventure and the chance to win up to $50,000.
The mysterious voice pairs the contestants up into two teams and instructs them to follow a movie-like drama that leads them through a series of challenges from hanging off the edge of Seattle’s Space Needle to racing into a burning building to save a man’s life.
The trailers for Seven Pounds before its release in theaters last December were purposefully vague and mysterious. The main character, Ben Thomas (Will Smith), has a secret, and that’s about all viewers get. He runs in the rain, meets a beautiful woman (Rosario Dawson) and somehow has the ability to change people’s lives.
If you didn’t see the film in theaters, you may still not know what the secret is all about. And you won’t when you watch Seven Pounds on DVD, either—at least not for an hour and a half… See the review at socal.com
Could you call it a parade? Maybe. In my long life of parade experience, this was probably the saddest I’d ever seen. In downtown LA, they threw a St. Patrick’s Day parade that included lots of cops and fire trucks. The audience was made up mainly of business people rushing to their lunch spots and thinking, “Hey, look. A parade.” and construction workers and the homeless.
But it gave me a good excuse to get outside on a beautiful day and snap a few photos.
Walked a block to the St. Patrick’s Day parade downtown today. I’ve been to a lot of parades in my day, and this was for sure the saddest of them all. Barely any spectators, and just a whole bunch of fire trucks and such. But it was a nice day, at least. Sunny and warm.
A talented, smart, witty friend of mine is writing an (anonymous) blog in which she will try to…. have 30 dates in 30 days. Now, I know what you’re thinking: impossible, right? For most people, I’d say it is. But not for her. Trust me on this.
So check it out, and check back often because I think this will be a good one.
You’re lucky the world is full of idiots. You’re lucky that most days you probably deal with people who would put up with your stupidity.
But today, today you were dealing with me. Sure, last week when you were supposed to install my cable TV and internet, you informed me that you couldn’t do the TV without the actual TV.
Fine. I can deal with that. So you installed the cable, and I rescheduled the TV installation for a week later. Of course, you wouldn’t have any earlier appointments because that’s how you operate.
So this morning, I wake up at 9 a.m., after rearranging my work schedule to fit YOUR schedule. I sit in my living room, and wait and wait and wait. An hour later, I hear my phone ring and run into the other room, a minute too late. There’s a message from you asking if I want to reschedule….what?
You never knocked on the door. You never got off your lazy ass and walked up to our (unlocked) apartment complex to knock on the door, as I sat waiting for over an hour in the living room. Instead, you told your supervisor that there was a “locked gate” and you couldn’t get in. There’s no locked gate–just a very lazy employee.
Oh, and your “customer service”? If that’s what you call that snide, rude lady who answered my phone call and told me the technician could come back–but it would have to be an all day appointment? Yeah, some customer service skills. How many pieces of flare does she have on?
So, what I’m saying Time Warner is that you are an idiot. You are the epitome of a lazy American who skims by on doing the minimum and getting away with as much laziness as you can. You have an attitude of a diva, which I guess you got because you know we need you. You know that all of Hollywood is dependant on you.
And you know what? I thought about cancelling my service with you, you jerk. But you’re like an abusive pimp. You get the job done, even if we get slapped around a little in the process.
So back to your customer service lady? She told me I had to reschedule for the “earliest appointment” which is…Saturday… my only day off… to sit around and wait for a phonecall….from an idiot.
I don’t swear. Not much anyway. Only in those terrible situations like when you drop a shelf on your foot. So “No cussing week” sounds like a great idea to me.
There are over 988,968 words in the English language. I just think people should be intelligent enough to use one of those words to replace those pathetic cuss words.
For six years, Jimmy Fallon kept the laughs coming on “SNL.” We loved him for his stoner Jarret, his radio DJ Joey Mack and his eternal bedhead on “Weekend Update.” Then, he left the show to pursue a career in the movies. Now, he’s making his epic return to TV as a late-night talk show host, replacing Conan O’Brien on NBC’s “Late Night.”
Fallon hopes to change things up with his show, and has already booked Robert De Niro for his first show, and hired hip-hop group The Roots as his house band. We talked to Fallon about his guests, his nerves and how in the world he got Van Morrison to appear on his show.
You have some pretty big hair to fill. How do you feel about that?
You know, I got my own hair issues so I’m sure I’ll figure it out. My nerves have kind of gone now, to be honest. I’m more just anxious and excited. I’m not taking Conan away. He’s not leaving. So I think if you love your Conan, I’m not hurting you at all. It’s going to be a good show. I’m just looking forward to it. I’m anxious and I’m ready to go.
Do you still get nervous when you’re on the stage in the spotlight?
Yes, I definitely still get nervous. I’m doing stand-up these days and that first 30 seconds when I come on stage, I’m nervous. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Because you can do the same jokes, the same delivery, different audience, you get different response. And that’s what makes it kind of fun.
How do you think your late night show will be different?
I think ours will be different in the fact that we’re younger. We’ll treat a video game premiere like a movie premiere. And we’re not going to hide the fact that people are on the Internet all day. I’m currently on Twitter and Facebook and Flickr and Digg.
Tell us about your first guest—the one, the only Robert De Niro.
De Niro is my first choice. I think he’s quintessential New York. He’s a legendary actor. I love him. I worked with him once at “Saturday Night Live” and like a couple things here and there. I think he represents New York more than anyone. He’s the king and I was honored that he said yes.
He’s rumored to be a tough interview.
I thought that it’d be kind of good to have my first guy be probably one of the toughest people you can interview. It could be kind of fun to see if we can get anything out of it. I don’t know, and it might be terrible. It might be awful. But I’m excited.
And what about Van Morrison?
I just lucked out because he’s in the city. He’s performing the full album of Astral Weeks. And if you love any music you know that that’s a phenomenal record. He’s one of my favorites of all times. So the fact that he was in town is just pure luck.
Has Van Morrison actually seen your impersonation of him?
I can almost guarantee you he has no idea who I am. I don’t even know if I’m going to show it to him. I don’t know that guy at all. I was psyched just to book him. I don’t know if I want to piss him off before he comes on the show. I respect him, I love him and I could sing any song backup if he needs me.
Is there anyone that you’re really hoping to interview?
I’d love to talk to the Queen of England if you have any way to get in touch with her. I’d love to just pick her brain and just tell her how much I love her. I think she’s super cool. Also, I’d love to go into space with Richard Branson and David Bowie. I know Branson’s got that space machine he’s working on. And I could be the first talk show host in space so I would love to make that happen. That’d be my dream probably.
A lot of people forget that being an interviewer is a very tough skill. What are you doing to prepare to be a good interviewer?
Every morning I sit my wife to the right of me and I ask her what she’s going to do that day. We run a clip and then we go to commercial.
How did you decide to have The Roots as your house band? You seem to be making history by having a rap band as a late night house band.
I don’t know who to compare them to because they can play with Tony Bennett and they could play with Jay-Z and it sounds great. They’re so diverse. I don’t know who else could do that. Plus on top of that they’re funny as hell. And so they’re going to do sketches and it’s going to be good. I really, really, really struck gold and I’m so happy and honored that they would be my band.
For your sketches, are you going to be going outside the studio at all?
Completely. More than shows have in the past I hope. I think New York City is the greatest city in the world. You can do so much stuff here and it’s like a huge playground. So I think we’re going to be more New York-centric than the shows have been in the past.
What type of advice did Conan give you?
I think the thing he’s repeated is that you’ve just got to do it. Just do it, just keep doing it because then that’s how you learn how to do it. Just get up there and just start swinging.
How do you plan to keep people tuned in night after night?
I honestly don’t know. I just know that every night I’m going to go out and give the best I can. And try to make you forget about your life and the bills you have to pay and your job. Just give me 10 minutes at 12:30 a.m. and I’ll make you laugh and then you can go to sleep or stay awake.
If you could write a new tag line for your show, what would it be?
“Late Night with Jimmy Fallon”— coconutty, carmelly, little chug of chocolate on it.
Rebecca M Ford 