Lance Armstrong Movie: Paramount and JJ Abrams to Release Film About Fallen Cyclist

Culture

Would you watch a Lance Armstrong movie if it were made by JJ Abrams? Well, you'll now have the chance.

The man behind Lost and the Star Trek reboot has teamed up with Paramount Pictures to successfully acquire the screen rights to a biopic for the famed cyclist and fallen hero. The story will be based on Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong, a pre-release work by Juliet Macur, a sports reporter who has followed Armstrong’s career over the last decade. In light of everything that’s come to the forefront now, she might have missed one big thing, though.

Sony Pictures had also previously acquired rights to an Armstrong film. However, seeing as how that film was destined to be a heroic tale about the man’s rise to stardom, the movie was cancelled once the legendary athlete quickly became a notorious joke.

That’s not to say that Armstrong hasn’t done some good, however. He truly did make cancer awareness a social issue, although it’s difficult to trust the sincerity of any “solidarity wristband” that comes in numerous colors and is highly conducive to accessorizing. Still, it’s better than the pink ribbons because those are horridly misleading; men can get breast cancer too, but we never hear about that.

Still, all that can’t change the fact that Armstrong has been found guilty of something horrid. After match fixing, steroid abuse is easily the biggest sin for an athlete. Armstrong wasn’t just a user; he was a distributor. In fact, he even actively went after the people that accused him and pleaded his innocence so vociferously that it now makes his guilt that much more damning.

If you have done something wrong, Mr. Armstrong, don’t be so stubborn in saying you haven’t; it really does make you look even more like a hypocritical hack when you get caught.

A guilty celebrity’s public disgrace is a satiation of their former fans’ bloodlust, and that’s what Paramount Pictures hopes to cash in. Armstrong made a mockery of the truly innocent by stubbornly denying his guilt and, as it now stands, he’s a cheat who earned nothing except 3.2 million viewers for his interview with Oprah.

And that’s 3.2 million more than the OWN network normally gets.