EXCLUSIVE: Toby Jones to Play Lou Pearlman in New TV Series
The Lou Pearlman television series has found its leading man, ET confirms exclusively.
Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated actor Toby Jones has signed on to star as the late boy band producer in a limited TV series that stems from the New Yorker article titled "We Live in a Pop-Culture World that Lou Pearlman Created," which tells of Pearlman's rise from struggling business owner to music mogul, as well as his fall to fraud.
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This isn't the first time Jones -- perhaps best known for his roles in The Hunger Games and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy -- will portray a real-life person in the entertainment industry. In 2012, he took on the role of Alfred Hitchcock in the HBO TV movie, The Girl, alongside Sienna Miller as The Birds star, Tippi Hedren.
"We’re beyond excited to have someone of Toby's caliber on board," Jon Kanak, manager/producer at Magnet Management, tells ET. "He was our first choice. We’re thrilled that he responded to the material.”
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In August, Pearlman, former manager of boy bands *NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, died at 62 at the Federal Correctional Institute in Miami, Florida, where he was serving a 25-year sentence. Pearlman was convicted in 2008 for his involvement in a massive Ponzi scheme that swindled 1,700 investors out of a half-billion dollars.
He was also sued by most of his acts -- the Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, O-Town, LFO, Take 5, Natural and Aaron Carter -- for fraud and misrepresentation.
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Backstreet Boy member AJ McLean spoke to ET following Pearlman's death, and shared that he had "already made his personal peace" with his former manager. "I had very mixed emotions," McLean said. "I think he was in the place he deserved to be -- prison -- but I am still sad at the way he died, at that he was alone."
"I'll always remember Lou as 'Big Poppa' and be grateful for the opportunity he gave me," he added.
Reporting by: Brendon Geoffrion