Austin Butler Is Trading Elvis’s Jumpsuit for Lance Armstrong’s Baggage
Well, this could be a hell of a movie.
Austin Butler’s Lance Armstrong biopic is moving toward a January 2027 production start, with All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger behind the camera and Zach Baylin writing the screenplay.
And let’s be honest: this story doesn’t exactly need Hollywood to manufacture the drama.
Cancer. A comeback. Seven Tour de France victories that were later stripped away. A sports hero whose downfall became just as famous as his success.
That’s a lot to fit between bike rides.
Apple Original Films picked up the project after a competitive bidding process, and the movie has reportedly been pitched as F1 meets The Wolf of Wall Street.
Okay. You have my attention.
Armstrong has officially granted his life rights for the film, something he didn’t do for 2015’s The Program, which starred Ben Foster. But the detail that interests me most is producer Scott Stuber’s reported condition: complete honesty, without creative interference.
Good. Because the last thing this needs to be is two hours of “Actually, Lance was misunderstood.”
There’s a compelling movie here about ambition, survival, institutional pressure, and the deception behind a story people desperately wanted to believe. But it only works if they’re willing to get into the ugly stuff.
Butler already earned an Oscar nomination for playing Elvis, so we know he can handle a famous face with a complicated life. Armstrong gives him a very different challenge: making us understand the man without asking us to excuse everything he did.
With Berger directing, I’m interested.
Just give me the rise, the fall, and the uncomfortable truth. Leave the inspirational rehabilitation tour in the garage.
