Austin Butler plays Lance Armstrong, a legendary raceman whose reputation has been tarnished by a doping scandal, as he prepares for the start of the Tour de France.
The “Elvis” star will play a cyclist in a new film from “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Conclave” director Edward Berger. Sources say former Netflix head of film Scott Stuber, who left United Artists, is producing the film, and a bidding war has begun among major studios and streamers.
Stuber has a first-look deal with Amazon-owned United Artists, but the project was wrapped up before he signed the deal, so the rights are now up for grabs. This is not the first time Armstrong’s story has been told on screen. Ben Foster played a road racing cyclist in 2015’s The Program, which was largely unwatchable when it premiered. Unlike that movie, Stuber secured Armstrong’s right to life.
Butler, who was nominated for an Oscar for “Elvis,” recently starred in Darren Aronofsky’s “Caught Stealing.” He will next be seen in the crime drama Enemies opposite Jeremy Allen White. Berger directed “The Ballad of a Little Player,” starring Colin Farrell and about a gambling addict. He will direct the film adaptation of Tim Winton’s novel The Riders, starring Brad Pitt.
Zach Balin, who wrote King Richard, will write the script for the Armstrong movie. Nick Nesbitt will co-produce with Stuber.
Butler is repped by WME, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, Sloan Offer Weber Dern, and Berger is repped by CAA, Range Media Partners, Jackoway Austin Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Tratner Auerbach Heinig Jamie Levine Sample & Klein. Baylin is repped by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.
