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Austin Butleris off to the races.
TheElvisstar has lined up his next major biopic role asLance Armstrong.
Entertainment Weeklyhas confirmed that Butler is attached to play the disgraced pro cyclist in a movie about his life and controversial career, in which he admitted to doping and was stripped of his seven Tour de France wins and one Olympic medal.
This will be Butler's latest biopic outing after his Oscar-nominated performance as Elvis Presley inElvis.
According toDeadline Hollywood, which first reported the news, Edward Berger (Conclave) will direct the Armstrong film, from a script by Zach Baylin (King Richard). The movie will be produced by Berger, Scott Stuber, and Nick Nesbit.
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Stuber, who recently producedBruce Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowherestarring Jeremy Allen White, had reportedly been working to get Armstrong's life rights for a long time to make this biopic. This marks the first time Armstrong signed off on his life rights for a movie (he was not involved with2015 movieThe Program, which was made without his approval), and he plans to be involved with the development of the project, though he won't have a producing credit.
Per Deadline, Stuber and Armstrong have had a relationship for a long time, and the filmmaker "made it clear to Armstrong they needed to tell everything or he didn't want to do the film."
"Everything" would presumably include the scandal that ended Armstrong's cycling career. After he survived testicular cancer and formed the Livestrong Foundation (remember those yellow rubber bracelets?), he went on to become the most celebrated cyclist in history, winning the Tour de France seven times in a row.
But after years of speculation regarding doping, formal investigations into the rumors began. While Armstrong consistently denied the allegations, he ultimately chose to not fight the United States Anti-Doping Agency's charges. He was then stripped of all seven Tour de France titles as well as all his other titles and awards, and was banned from the sport for life.
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Armstrong finally confessed inan interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2013, confirming that he was doping throughout most of his career. He revealed that he used banned performance-enhancing drugs and oxygen-boosting blood transfusions in all seven Tour de France wins, and that he was a "bully" by forcing unnamed teammates to dope as well.
"I view this situation as one big lie that I repeated a lot of times," Armstrong said at the time. "I know the truth. The truth isn't what was out there. The truth isn't what I said. I'm a flawed character, as I well know. All the fault and all the blame here falls on me."
He told Winfrey that his doping "cocktail" included EPO, blood transfusions, and testosterone, and that he had previously used cortisone. He claimed that he stopped doping after his 2005 Tour de France win, and said that he did not use banned substances in his comeback years later when he placed third in 2009 and raced again in 2010.
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