PARK CITY, UT - JANUARY 22: Actor Ben Foster poses for a portrait during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival at The Samsung Galaxy Tab Lift on January 22, 2011 in Park City, Utah.
Larry Busacca/Getty Images for Sundance Film FestivalBen Foster is in negotiations to portray Lance Armstrong in Working Title’s untitled project on the disgraced cyclist, THR has confirmed.
Stephen Frears is directing the movie that would tell the story of Armstrong’s battle with testicular cancer in the mid-1990s to the unraveling of his image in the last several years due to the use of performance-enhancing drugs.
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John Hodge, a frequent collaborator of Danny Boyle whose credits include Shallow Grave, Trainspotting and the recent Trance, wrote the script.
Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are producing.
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Working Title’s Armstrong project is one of at least three biopics on the cyclist (one is set up at Warner Bros., one at Paramount) but seems to be at this stage the furthest along.
The casting is a major move for Foster, an acclaimed actor who has mostly stuck to strong supporting parts or ensemble films. The actor stars in Ain’t Them Bodies Saints with Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck and is part Pete Berg’s Lone Survivor, whose cast includes Mark Wahlberg, Eric Bana, and Taylor Kitsch.
He is repped by WME.
