In January 27, 2006, Universal Pictures released Alpha Dog, based on the true story of the 2000 kidnapping and murder of Nicholas Markowitz. The movie was directed by Nick Cassavetes. I just had a chance to watch this movie again, and while there is tons of hot actors, I will keep the focus on Justin Timberlake and Anton Yelchin. Other stars included Ben Foster, Shawn Hatosy (An Animal Kingdom write-up is definitely coming), Vincent Kartheiser, Bruce Willis, Emile Hirsch and Fernando Vargas.
While this was not Justin Timberlake’s acting debut, it was undoubtedly his breakout performance. For most of Justin’s career, he was associated with Boyband NSYNC, and this was a good break from that image. I recall how hot seeing a tatted up Justin was.
The heart of this movie was the relationship between Nicholas and Frankie. Justin and Anton did an incredible job. In the end, it was heartbreaking. The movie gained Justin Timberlake an MTV Movie Awards nomination for Breakthrough Performance, and Teen Choice Awards nomination for Breakout Male. The movie made $32.1 million dollars at the box office.
Ten Years later, on June 19, 2016, Anton Yelchin died at the age of 27. Anton passed due to “blunt traumatic asphyxia” when he was crushed in his driveway by his jeep in an accident. So unfortunate–we could only imagine the great work we would have seen from Anton. One of the favorites after Alpha Dog was him portraying Pavel Chekov in 2009’s reboot of Star Trek.
R.I.P Anton