{"id":462113,"date":"2026-02-08T17:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T17:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/462113\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T17:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T17:21:11","slug":"austin-butler-to-play-lance-armstrong-in-major-studio-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/462113\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin Butler to play Lance Armstrong in major studio film"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well this isn\u2019t something cycling fans most likely had on their bingo card. According to Deadline<\/a>, studios are circling a newly assembled package centered on one of pro cycling\u2019s most infamous athletes. Austin Butler is attached to star as none other than Lance Armstrong<\/a> in a new feature film. Oscar-winning filmmaker Edward Berger is also attached to direct. The script is being written by King Richard screenwriter Zach Baylin, with Scott Stuber and Nick Nesbit producing alongside Berger. Josh Glick, Zac Frognowski, and Baylin will serve as executive producers.<\/p>\n

Bidding war<\/p>\n

The project has apparently quickly become one of the most aggressively pursued projects in La La Land, with multiple major studios said to be in the mix.<\/p>\n

Lance Armstrong: EPO\u2019s 4-hour half-life meant he never tested positive<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Armstrong\u2019s life has long drawn Hollywood interest for its\u2026erm, extremes. If you just landed from Jupiter and hadn\u2019t heard about the American, here\u2019s a quick summary. After surviving testicular cancer, he returned to professional cycling and rose to unprecedented dominance, winning seven consecutive Tour de France titles. That legacy ultimately collapsed in spectacular fashion back in 2012 when Armstrong admitted to years of systematic doping following prolonged and public denials.<\/p>\n

Armstrong onboard<\/p>\n

Although the scandal was previously dramatized in 2015\u2019s The Program, this marks the first time Armstrong has granted life rights for a feature film. Stuber made it clear early on that the project would only move forward with no restrictions on the story, a condition the Texan ultimately accepted after extensive discussions. Although banned for life from professional cycling, the American has remained active in the sport, largely through his popular podcast, The Move.<\/p>\n

According to Deadline<\/a>, the film is being positioned as a \u201ccharacter study.\u201d Baylin has conducted a whole bunch of research, speaking with Armstrong himself as well as several other folks associated with him. (Who he spoke with wasn\u2019t specified, but you can probably guess several of the people.) Although it\u2019s unclear what more information could be shown in the film, since there have already been several documentaries about Armstrong, books galore, and approximately eight billion articles.<\/p>\n

For Butler, fresh off his Oscar-nominated run as Elvis Presley, the role represents another, well\u2026bold transformation. At least he doesn\u2019t have to sing. (There\u2019s a joke there about Armstrong\u2019s former teammates, but we won\u2019t go there.)<\/p>\n

And before you run to the comments to say, \u201cnobody cares about this cheat,\u201d it seems people still do, for good or for bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well this isn\u2019t something cycling fans most likely had on their bingo card. According to Deadline, studios are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[6630,49,48,635,9713,71857,82,35880],"class_list":{"0":"post-462113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-austin-butler","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-cycling","12":"tag-hollywood","13":"tag-lance-armstrong","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-the-program"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}