No one can really argue that Justin Timberlake isn’t the best damn SNL guest-host of the past 25 years or so, but I just cannot figure out why his undeniable comedic acting chops never seem to translate to the big screen. Hell, even though JT was the best part of The Love Guru, he was still bloody awful as hockey player Jacques “Le Coq” Grande. Yet he’s taken on far more ridiculous characters and scenarios in SNL, so I just don’t get the discrepancy. JT’s dramatic turns haven’t been met with any more enthusiasm either, but, regardless, dude has just signed on as one of the leads in The Social Network:

Columbia Pictures and director David Fincher have set its core cast for “The Social Network,” the Aaron Sorkin-scripted drama about the formation of Facebook.

Jesse Eisenberg will play founder Mark Zuckerberg, Justin Timberlake will play Sean Parker, the Napster co-founder who became Facebook’s founding president, and Andrew Garfield will play Eduardo Saverin, the Facebook co-founder who fell out with Zuckerberg as the social network became a financial juggernaut.

The pic focuses on the evolution of Facebook, the social network created in 2004 on the Harvard campus. And how overnight success and wealth changes the lives of the classmates who created it. The trio were the subject of internet rumors as Fincher zeroed in on his leads.

Further disbelief comes from the fact that David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) will direct this thing. Such wasted talent! And I’m sure that Lamebook Facebook figures that all that free advertising, with which they’ll surely bombard their users, will actually translate into ticket sales. Pirates of Silicon Valley, anyone?