Quick, off the top of your head, name one young actor that hasn’t quite gotten his due. Top of mind for us is 32-year-old Ben Foster, who has racked up some critical praise in the last few years with some seriously impressive supporting performances, even in films not quite to our liking, or in roles that match his intensity. Foster has been terrific in mediocre movies like “30 Days Of Night” and “Alpha Dog,” and went toe-to-toe and stood his ground with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale in the underrated “3:10 To Yuma.” Foster’s been moving the needle a bit more lately with meaty roles in Oren Moverman‘s “The Messenger,” David Lowery‘s “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints,” but he’s got an even juicier role landing on his plate.
It seems everyone wants a piece of the Lance Armstrong saga — Alex Gibney has a documentary recently picked up by Sony Pictures Classics on the way, while J.J. Abrams is producing a feature and Scott Z. Burns and Jay Roach are cooking something up too — and Stephen Frears is getting in on the action. He’s got a project brewing that will have Foster playing the disgraced cyclist in a project set up at Working Title, penned by Danny Boyle regular John Hodge (“Trance,” “The Beach,” “Trainspotting“).
You know the story: testicular cancer, Sheryl Crow, breaking records at the Tour De France, Livestrong, rumors, doping, denial, investigation, confirmation, shame, Oprah — it’s got it all (celebrity, scandal, sports), so it’s easy to see why filmmakers are falling out of trees to make this thing.
Should it all come together, production on the untitled movie will begin this fall and we presume we’ll see this trotted out during the awards season of 2014. It’ll mark Frears’ second biopic in a row, following his upcoming HBO effort “Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight.”