Armstrong has released life rights to the Hollywood production, with Austin Butler set to star and an Oscar-nominated director in the driving seat.
Cor Vos
As Hollywood’s awards season gathers apace, Deadline reports that a new Lance Armstrong biopic is in the works with a high-profile producing and creative team already lined up.
This would not be the first time the “infamous cyclist” – as Deadline writes – has received the movie treatment, but on this occasion, former Netflix Films chairman, producer Scott Stuber, has obtained Armstrong’s own sign-off having apparently pursued the former cyclist’s life rights for a very long time. The project has reportedly already got major studios frothing at the mouth as it goes to market for distribution rights – Stuber has a first-look deal with Amazon MGM Studios, but the roots of this project pre-date the relationship, so Amazon will have competition.
This new project comes about a decade after Armstrong’s downfall was immortalised in the 2015 film ‘The Program’, a small – relatively speaking, minuscule – British-French co-production helmed by acclaimed British TV and film director Stephen Frears (‘My Beautiful Laundrette‘, ‘The Grifters‘, ‘The Queen‘, etc.), and focussing on the perspective of journalist David Walsh, with a screenplay based on his 2012 book ‘Seven Deadly Sins’. American actor Ben Foster played Armstrong opposite Chris O’Dowd’s Walsh, and reportedly took performance-enhancing drugs to prepare for and inhabit the role, its most memorable scene showing Armstrong practising his infamous line in the mirror: “I have never tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs.”
Though there is no script for this new film yet, currently listed as ‘Untitled Lance Armstrong Project’, there are a number of intriguing individuals already on board, including awards darlings Austin Butler of ‘Elvis’ fame in the lead role, ‘King Richard’ writer Zach Baylin penning the screenplay, and Edward Berger of ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and ‘Conclave’ attached to direct.
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