Austin Butler lands Lance Armstrong role in new biopic
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Austin Butler has officially landed a starring role in another biopic, this time taking on the role of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong.
As per Deadline, the movie will be directed by Conclave filmmaker Edward Berger. Zach Baylin, who wrote the Will Smith-fronted tennis film King Richard, will pen the script.
Reportedly, the package has caused quite a stir between major studios, causing a major bidding war between several of them. Producer Scott Stuber, whose recent credits include the Bruce Springsteen biopic, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, has apparently been attempting to get Armstrong’s life rights for some time now.
As per the Guardian, the ambition for the film is for it to be a cross between Oscar-nominated picture F1 and The Wolf of Wall Street.
It will follow the life and times of Armstrong, who won the Tour de France on seven consecutive occasions between 1998 and 2005.
However, in 2012, his titles were removed, and he received a lifetime ban from the sport when an investigation found him to have used illegal performance-enhancing drugs. Armstrong is attached to this project, but won’t receive a producing credit.
His story has been rendered on the screen before, in Stephen Frears’ 2015 The Program; Ben Foster played the cyclist, but it received mixed reviews.
The 34-year-old earned a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for his work in the 2022 Elvis Presley biopic, Elvis. He has since starred in plenty of box office hits, such as The Bikeriders, Eddington, Dune: Part Two, and Caught Stealing.
The star is also reportedly attached to play the iconic Patrick Bateman in Luca Guadagnino’s take on American Psycho, as well as starring alongside Jeremy Allen White in the crime thriller Enemies.
As for Armstrong, the ex-professional cyclist now lives in Texas; online, he hosts podcasts and invests. He has amassed an Instagram following of over 600,000.
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