Paramount, JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot Target Lance Armstrong Cheat Scandal For Pic
EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot partners JJ Abrams and Bryan Burk are going to make a movie about the epic rise and fall of doping bicyclist Lance Armstrong. They’ve just closed a deal for screen rights to Cycle Of Lies: The Fall Of Lance Armstrong, a proposal for a book that will be written by Juliet Macur for HarperCollins.
Macur is a sports reporter for The New York Times, and she has covered Armstrong for over a decade, through the cyclist’s recovery from deadly cancer to his capturing seven Tour de France title. She has also covered the allegations of doping that Armstrong vehemently denied, before finally falling on his sword in a much publicized interview with Oprah Winfrey (since that two-part program will put Winfrey’s OWN on the map, I’m waiting to read the story on whether or not Armstrong got paid handsomely for his confession).
Related: Lance Armstrong Confesses To Oprah: Video
This is the first fresh new Hollywood feature I’ve heard of since Armstrong went from hero to zero, particularly because he protested his innocence so vociferously. Sony Pictures has long had an Armstrong feature project, but the studio dropped it awhile ago, when Armstrong began his descent from grace. This one had the biker’s pal Jake Gyllenhaal poised to star, and it was clearly meant to tell a heroic story of an athlete who overcame adversity. Now it’s the story of a cheat who will likely pay a high price for his lies. Will Sony resurrect theirs, which had Armstrong aboard, and change the angle? That will be hard. It’s reminiscent of the time that Tom Cruise and Cameron Crowe made a deal with Phil Spector to tell the mercurial producer’s life story. Cruise had Spector’s mannerisms down pat, and they had the music but Crowe told me what they lacked was a good third act. Well, that was provided when Spector was convicted and is serving a prison sentence for the shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson. But Universal, Crowe and Cruise never moved forward with the project. Instead, the film was made by HBO with Al Pacino in the lead role.
Related: Oprah’s Lance Armstrong Interview Draws 3.2 Million In Night One Debut
Janklow & Nesbit’s Carlo Martinelli & Amanda Schweitzer handled the deal. They were dispatched by the lit agency to Hollywood to be in the center of such deal making undertakings, and they didn’t have to pedal far to peddle this Armstrong tale.
Every story in the world must be turned into a movie! Let’s try to make a profit off every scandal ever!
Who cares about cycling and who cares about Lance Armstrong?
And yet here you are.
For the 100th time, why do people take the time to read an article and comment on a subject with the claim that they “don’t care”?
I have a mild passing curiosity about the story, not much more. I would like to say though that since it’s probably true that all of the stars of that race do it, that to me seems to level the field anyway. I mean who the HeII can ride a bike 100 miles a day over mountain ranges and roads for almost a month anyway without some energy enhancing drug. People have to be idiots to believe they don’t. The ones who don’t never even finish the race.
This ain’t just some energy enhancing drug. He was getting blood transfusions!
I agree with the above comment. Anyone that thinks that it’s possible to ride over 2000 miles in 3weeks over mountains in a ruthless race, without anything is crazy.
the tour has always had drugs- right from the start! But that is not what the story of Lance Armstrong is about. It’s not about lying, or cheating. It’s about how crippling blind ambition can be. That is what makes this fascinating. There is a bit of Lance in all of us. Who would we step on to get to the top- to be the best- to have all the glory of the finish line?
it’s about doing whatever it takes to be #1 – in some careers it’s called ‘business’. we need to change our definition of ‘hero’ and pass it on to our kids
Who cares about football? Yet the studios love jamming football movies down our throats like the boring, pedantic Blind Side movie and others. Get used to it.
You’re right Ray. Who cares about football…which is why every week during the season, even the pregame show for Sunday Night Football gets twice the ratings as any scripted show on television…just a REALLY DUMB argument. A Lance Armstrong movie is a dumb idea too though…
Absolutely right.
And on top of it, Hollywood should also teach and preach that one can get loads of attention, even a movie, for cheating, lying, cunning, bullying, etc. YEAH! Great idea no?
J.J. just got out of my favorite best director’s. So cheap!!!
Paramount creative. Not good.
This is a bad idea. Who would want to see a movie about this? We should just forgive him and wish him well. I hope his marriage to Oprah works out.
forgive him? yeah right
mike, its a 2 part interview, not 3, and oprah doesnt normally pay
Why not jam a bicycle up Lance’s ass ?
I love cycling but this couldn’t sound more boring. Who on earth wants to sit through:
“did you do it?”
“yes”
“why?”
“It was easier”
stretched into 2 hours?
You can easily stretch it out.
“Did you do it?”
“No.”
“Really?”
(Two hour pause”)
“Yes.”
Of all people why go to OW??? She got rich from the pocketbooks of non-black women watching her shows.
They can make a movie but they can’t make us watch it.
Lance is DISGUSTING and I hope any money he makes goes to repay those that are suing him.
Maybe Lance was taken over by the Borg and can figure in JJ’s next Star Trek movie.
Great idea, but it wouldn’t shock me if the Cycling powers that be kill it. From what I’ve read in the news, cheating is just absolutely rampant and ridiculous.
Naysayers: This can be a GREAT movie if done right. Lance is a slippery character who fooled tens of millions (if not hundreds) for decades while behind the scenes he was a tyrant, a bully, and a maniac. Doping during the Tour was like espionage; secret packages being left at hotels, Lance ducking into alleyways during the RACE ITSELF to do injections, storing gallons of blood in portable freezers… a plethora of corrupt racers AND officials (Lance has at least once bribed officials to keep quiet).
Cycling is a fascinating and super secret world. A Lance Armstrong moving could be dark, intense, disturbing, and brilliant if done right.
Of course, it could be shit if done wrong.
Meanwhile, the life stories of countless worthy role models remain untold and unheralded.
Wotta country.
So find a great story, interview the participants, write a book/screenplay, pitch it, get it made! Or, you can just find a good story about someone in your community who’s doing good deeds or who has overcome great odds or who changed their life for the better, and pitch it to your local newspaper or website (Patch.com is a start). Those places love these kind of stories if they’re told well.
It’s up to you. Or you can just complain.
Come on Bad Robot and Paramount… Please don’t give this guy anymore of anything. The man RUINED lives, is a constant liar, and the only reason he did this Oprah interview (foolishly in my opinion) is to try and get sort of new PR spin on his life. It’s one thing that he lied and cheated, but the way he sued people and attacked them, that is really something. PLEASE DO NOT MAKE THIS MOVIE.