Tags
2010s, autobiography, Ben Foster, Chris O'Dowd, David Walsh, Icon, Lance Armstrong, Movies, Seven Deadly Sins, Stephen Frears, The Program
The Program (working title Icon) is a 2015 biographical drama film about Lance Armstrong directed by Stephen Frears, starring Ben Foster as Armstrong and Chris O’Dowd as journalist David Walsh.
The film is based on Walsh’s 2012 book Seven Deadly Sins. It premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on September 14, 2015 and was theatrically released in France on September 16 and the United Kingdom on October 14.
Director Stephen Frears had the idea to make a film about Lance Armstrong after reading a review of Tyler Hamilton’s book, The Secret Race. Unable to acquire the rights for Hamilton’s book, he instead settled on Walsh’s Seven Deadly Sins. Frears then turned to screenwriter John Hodge to write the script, partly because of Hodge’s experience as a doctor.
Hodge has said that he primarily based his screenplay on Seven Deadly Sins, in addition to other journalism and affidavits from cyclists. Hodge says he ruled out using Armstrong’s own accounts of his behavior during this period, and that scenes shown from Armstrong’s perspective are fiction.