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Ben Foster Will Play Lance Armstrong in Upcoming Biopic, Chris O’Dowd To Costar

Ben Foster at Landmark Sunshine Cinema on July 31, 2013

The Tour de Lance continues! Actor Ben Foster is set to star as Lance Armstrong in an upcoming biopic.

Foster, who's played Angel in X-Men: The Last Stand, will set his wings aside to portray the disgraced cyclist in the Stephen Frears-directed biopic, reports Deadline. The film will be based on the book, "Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong," by Irish journalist David Walsh.

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The biopic will encompass the timeline from Armstrong's diagnosis of testicular cancer in the '90s to his meteoric rise as a superstar athlete, and ultimately to his downfall following a massive doping scandal that peaked in 2012. Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles last year following an in-depth investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, with Walsh playing a hefty role in the athlete's demise.

In an intense, no-holds-barred, sit-down interview with Oprah Winfrey in January, Armstrong fessed up and expressed remorse over his actions. "The ultimate crime is the betrayal of those people that supported me and believed in me," he said. "They got lied to."

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Bridesmaids and Girls cast member Chris O'Dowd will portray sports journalist Walsh, while Breaking Bad's Jesse Plemons and French actor Guillaume Canet will have supporting roles in the film. Previous works by Frears' include The Queen and High Fidelity.

Foster, currently dating Robin Wright, has starred in films like The Messenger and 3:10 to Yuma, and had a memorable role in Six Feet Under.

Filming for the biopic is slated to begin Oct. 18. It joins two other Armstrong films currently in the works– one based on the book, "Cycle of Lies" by Juliet Macur, and Red Blooded American starring Bradley Cooper.

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Tell Us: Is Ben Foster the right choice to play Armstrong?

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