Austin Butler To Play Lance Armstrong In New Movie From Edward Berger

EXCLUSIVE: Here is a package that has several major studios off to the races. Deadline is hearing that Austin Butler is attached to star in a movie about infamous cyclist Lance Armstrong, with Edward Berger on board to direct. King Richard scribe Zach Baylin is penning the spec, with Scott Stuber and Nick Nesbit producing along with Berger. Josh Glick and Zac Frognowski will serve as Executive Producers alongside Baylin. 

Sources say the package has already caused a frenzied bidding war with several offers in from major studios. Insiders say that Stuber has been working for some time to get Armstrong’s life rights; for so long, in fact, it precedes Stuber’s new United Artist deal, which is why the project is going to market instead of Amazon MGM Studios getting first dibs at it.

Prior to relaunching United Artists and setting a deal with Amazon, there were a handful of films Stuber was planning to produce separately — and this project was one of them. Insiders say Amazon top brass are completely supportive of this plan.

Hollywood has always been enamored with the Armstrong story at it involves the highest highs and the lowest lows. Armstrong famously survived cancer and returned to the world of pro cycling, where he would go on to win the famed Tour de France an incredible seven consecutive times. Hollywood would soon fall in love with that story, with several A-listers chasing the role of a lifetime. But before that story could be told, Armstrong, after denying it for years, ultimately admitted to blood doping, ultimately ending his career.

Hollywood did end up telling that story, with Ben Foster ultimately portraying the actor as a villain in the 2015 movie The Program, which Armstrong was not a part of.  

This, which combines elements of F1 The Movie and Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull and Wolf of Wall Street, and will cover the life and career of Armstrong, capturing the highs and lows of his extraordinary journey.

The current project being shopped will mark the first time Armstrong has signed off on his life rights. Stuber and Armstrong have a had relationship for some time, and the producer made it clear to Armstrong they needed to tell everything or he didn’t want to do the film. After many discussions over a long period, Armstrong signed off on it. While he plans to be involved with the development, will not have a producing credit.

With his sign-off, the hope is to have the film be a cross between F1 and The Wolf of Wall Street. Insiders say Baylin is not only talking to Armstrong but has also spent time with people in Armstrong’s life, with nothing off limits.

Stuber is no stranger to producing films about iconic public figures having just worked on Bruce Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere starring Jeremy Allen White. Butler earned an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Elvis Presley in Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis.

The Armstrong film marks another high-profile package teaming Butler and Berger that has drawn a lot of attention from the town. In 2024, 20th Century landed the time-travel pic The Barrier with Butler attached to star and Berger directing.

Stuber is currently working on several films, including, Lizard Music, Dwayne Johnson and Benny Safdie’s latest collaboration; a film adaptation of Freida McFadden‘s #1 New York Times bestselling psychological thriller, The Tenant; and a new version of Highlander, based on the 1980s cult classic, starring Henry Cavill. Recent projects from Stuber include Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein for Netflix

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