Austin Butler is about to get his Tour de France on, playing Lance Armstrong, the racing legend whose reputation was undone by a doping scandal.
The “Elvis” star will portray the cyclist in a new film from Edward Berger, the director of “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Conclave.” Scott Stuber, the former Netflix film chief who decamped for United Artists, is producing the film, which has set off a bidding war among major studios and streamers, sources say.
Stuber has a first-look deal with the Amazon-owned, United Artists, but the project came together before he signed the pact, so the rights are up for grabs. It’s not the first time that Armstrong’s story has been told on screen. Ben Foster played the road racing cyclist in 2015’s “The Program,” a drama that was little seen when it premiered. Unlike with that film, Stuber has secured Armstrong’s life rights.
Butler, an Oscar nominee for “Elvis,” recently starred in Darren Aronofsky’s “Caught Stealing.” He next appears in the crime drama “Enemies” opposite Jeremy Allen White. Berger directed “Ballad of a Small Player,” a look at a gambling addict that starred Colin Farrell. He’s set to direct an adaptation of Tim Winton’s novel “The Riders” with Brad Pitt playing the lead.
Zach Baylin, who wrote “King Richard,” will write the screenplay for the Armstrong film. Nick Nesbit will produce alongside Stuber.
Butler is repped by WME, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Sloane Offfer Weber Dern, Berger is represented by CAA, Range Media Partners, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner Auerbach Hynick Jaime LeVine Sample & Klein. Baylin is represented by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole
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