NSYNC PREP FOR FEATURE DEBUT

NSYNC members JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick and Justin Timberlake will make their feature film debut in an untitled project for Total Film Group and the band's Phat Free Prods.

Although details of the project are being kept under wraps, the film will be music-based and the band members will not play themselves, indicating that NSYNC has learned from the Spice Girls' mistakes. TFG is financing the project; the budget has not been set.

The group's members have had limited acting experiences in the past. Timberlake and Chasez were featured on "The Mickey Mouse Club" in the 1992-93 season. Timberlake recently starred in the TV movie "Model Behavior" opposite Kathie Lee Gifford, while Bass played himself on an episode of "7th Heaven." The group also take appear in the upcoming indie feature "Jack of All Trades," co-written and produced by the group's original founder and manager Louis Pearlman.

The new film's plot is being kept under wraps until next month's Cannes Film Festival. Details of the film, including story line and title, will be unveiled May 16 at Cannes, where the group is due to make an appearance, according to the production company behind the project.