In a dizzying race to the finish, the life of disgraced 7-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong’s is reaching another turn in Hollywood.
In breaking news from Deadline, it appears that Bradley Cooper is entering the foray with director Jay Roach and Warner Brothers Pictures’ take on the fallen cycling idol, aptly named Red Blooded American. Cooper is currently in talks to play either Armstrong himself or former cycling teammate Tyler Hamilton, a member of Armstrong’s U.S. Postal Service Team who came forward in a 60 Minutes interview about the doping scandal. Armstrong went after Hamilton following the admission, and the film seeks to dramatize this demoralizing sports story with the director of HBO’s Game Change.
Meanwhile Stephen Fears (The Queen, High Fidelity) is also mounting a competing Lance Armstrong film starring Ben Foster as the besmirched Tour de France winner. And finally, there is another project at Paramount Pictures with JJ Abrams set to produce through his production company Bad Robot, based on Juliet Macur’s Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong.
There are enough bikes on the track to give someone whiplash. However, the WB project, with a likely Academy Award nominated Cooper soon attached, will be scripted by Scott Z. Burns of ContagionandSide Effects.
Since Armstrong’s fall from grace, he has become the poster boy for American hero worship gone wrong. The story could be viewed with pathos, as he recovered from testicular cancer in 1996, or complete cynicism, as he has been forced to even distance himself from his charities. Either way, we may see of lot of Armstrong films riding our way in the near future.