- Actor Austin Butler is set to portray disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong in a new film.
- This upcoming movie is one of several films and documentaries made about Armstrong’s life.
- Armstrong’s story of a hero’s fall from grace continues to attract filmmakers.
America didn’t know it needed yet another movie about Lance Armstrong. But it’s getting one anyway, this time with actor Austin Butler cast to portray the disgraced former cyclist.
Multiple Hollywood news outlets even have reported that the upcoming film has stirred up a “bidding war” among film studios despite the fact that filmgoers have seen this movie before, or at least different versions of it. Grab some popcorn and binge on this:
∎ An ESPN documentary film entitled “Lance” earned critical acclaim in 2020.
∎ Actor Ben Foster played Armstrong in the “The Program” in 2015.
∎ ‘Stop at Nothing: The Lance Armstrong Story” came out in 2014.
∎ ‘The Armstrong Lie” by director Alex Gibney debuted in 2013.
∎ ‘The World According to Lance’ predated his confession to doping when it was released in 2012.
Now comes another one with a slight twist. Film producer Scott Stuber has acquired Armstrong’s life rights, according to Deadline.
Armstrong, 54, didn’t return a message seeking comment. But he didn’t like the last film in which he starred – the one on ESPN that actor Chevy Chase thought was so good that he agreed to participate in a film on himself with the same director (Marina Zenovich).
Why is there another movie about Lance Armstrong?
As far back as 2013, USA TODAY Sports posed the question: Why are film producers and book publishers falling over themselves to retell Armstrong’s story?
The answer is that it’s an epic tale about the rise of an American hero and cancer survivor who then became a villain after his lies and bullying finally caught up to him and led to his downfall. Armstrong won seven Tour de France titles but got stripped of all of them after using banned drugs and blood transfusions to boost himself on the bike. He denied his doping for years until he finally confessed to Oprah Winfrey in January 2013.
‘Lance’s story, his mythic story, was maybe the greatest sports story of all time,” Gibney told USA TODAY Sports in 2013. “That’s pretty big, and then the fall from grace was precipitous. That kind of Shakespearean or Greek tragedy is appealing to filmmakers.’
The new movie about Armstrong is set to be directed by Edward Berger, who also directed the 2024 film Conclave. That was another movie about secrets and scandal but was based on a book of fiction. The latest Lance film will be based on a true story, which includes his many lies.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com