During his recent run of charity shows, Johnny No-Name (a k a the
Backstreet
Boys' A.J. McLean) promised fans that when the Boys' new album comes
out in
October, 'N Sync will be saying "Bye, Bye, Bye" to its first-week
sales
record of nearly 2.4 million copies of No Strings Attached. 'N Sync,
however,
doesn't really consider those fighting words.
"I feel a little sorry for them," says the group's Joey Fatone, "just
for the
fact that they have to prove something. They're very successful at
what they
do, and very talented."
Adds Lance Bass, "It's funny. I wish we wouldn't have broken the
record,
because now it's going to be this focus every time someone releases
an album,
with [Britney Spears'] next album and everything. Then you lose the
whole
effect of the music.
"The thing is, if [the Backstreet Boys] don't break the record in
October,
what does that mean? Does it mean the album's going to suck? It's
going to be
good. I just hope if they don't break it, people still get it. That
doesn't
mean that it's not good."
During a lengthy teleconference Tuesday, Fatone and Bass revealed a
plethora
of plans that will keep 'N Sync busy well into 2001, including a
world tour,
a movie, and a third album that may include a collaboration with
Spears, who
co-starred on The New Mickey Mouse Club with 'N Syncers Justin
Timberlake and
J.C. Chasez and who is slated to be 'N Sync's tour partner in Europe
during
October.
"That has been talked about," says Bass of the Spears collaboration,
adding
that 'N Sync plans to start working on its third album during August
and
September, while on break from touring. "It would be one of the
hottest songs
ever, I think. I would want to do something like a Janet
Jackson-Michael
Jackson 'Scream' Ñ very edgy, very dance-oriented, because she's such
a
performer. I was actually talking with her the other day , 'OK, this
next
album, we're going to write something and it's going to be a killer,
killer
duet.' So maybe on the next album."
'N Sync has announced North American tour dates from May to July,
with Sisqo
opening, and Bass and Fatone say that they will make a return visit
to the
United States during the late fall and early winter. They'd like the
third
album to be released during the spring of 2001. But the big project
for next
year appears to be a feature film that's being produced by a company
Bass and
Fatone have set up. The movie will start filming next January, with a
release
in fall 2001. Full details will be announced during mid-May at the
Cannes
Film Festival, but Bass let a few tidbits slip.
"Me and Joey have been writing a screenplay for the past four years
or so,"
he said. "We haven't been taking it serious until recently. We've met
some
great people in the film industry, so we decided, 'Why not? Let's
just go for
it.' The five of us star in it, with someone else you know. It's
absolutely
going to be huge; that's all I can say." Ñ Gary Graff
