Star Trek director J.J. Abrams is being linked to a film about disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong.
The London Sun reports that Bourne star Matt Damon is already being eyed to play the Texan, who recently confessed to doping in a pair of interviews with Oprah Winfrey.
Paramount Pictures and Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot, have bought the rights to a book by journalist Juliet Macur on the rise and fall of the athlete, who won and then was stripped of seven Tour de France titles following the drugs scandal. No details on casting or start date have been released.
The book, Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong, is due out in June and charts Armstrong’s career over a decade from his battle with cancer to the cheating that shattered his reputation.
Abrams’ production company was behind Star Trek as well as Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Super 8.
An earlier Amstrong film by studio rivals Sony and said to star Jake Gyllenhaal was scrapped after the cyclist’s mea culpa to Oprah. It would have shown him as a heroic figure, something seen as highly unlikely in any film treatment being considered today.
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