''The Program'' (working title, ''Icon'') is a 2015 biographical

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

about Lance Armstrong directed by

Stephen Frears Sir Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is a British director and producer of film and television, often depicting real life stories as well as projects that explore social class through sharply-drawn characters. He has received numerous a ...

, 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 The seven deadly sins (also known as the capital vices or cardinal sins) function as a grouping of major vices within the teachings of Christianity. In the standard list, the seven deadly sins according to the Catholic Church are pride, greed ...

''. It premiered at the

2015 Toronto International Film Festival The 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 10 to 20 September 2015. On 28 July 2015 the first wave of films to be screened at the Festival was announced. Jean-Marc Vallée's ''Demolition'' starring Jake Gyllenhaal and N ...

14 September 2015, and was theatrically released in France 16 September and the United Kingdom 14 October.

Cast

* Ben Foster as Lance Armstrong * Chris O'Dowd as David Walsh * Guillaume Canet as Michele Ferrari * Jesse Plemons as Floyd Landis * Lee Pace as Bill Stapleton * Denis Menochet as

Johan Bruyneel Johan Bruyneel (born 23 August 1964) is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer and a former directeur sportif for UCI ProTour team , and (later known as Discovery Channel), a US-based UCI ProTour cycling team. On 25 October 2018, the ...

Dustin Hoffman Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for Dustin Hoffman filmography, his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable charac ...

as Bob Hamman * Edward Hogg as Frankie Andreu * Elaine Cassidy as Betsy Andreu * Laura Donnelly as Emma O'Reilly * Sam Hoare as Stephen Swart * Kevin Hulsmans as

Filippo Simeoni Filippo Simeoni (born 17 August 1971) is an Italian former racing cyclist and the 2008 Italian road race champion.

* John Schwab as Travis Tygart * Lucien Guignard as Alberto Contador * Nicolas Robin as Christophe Bassons * James Harkness as Wayne * Josh O'Connor as Rich * Nathan Wiley as Charles Pelkey

Production

Development

Director

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 settled on Walsh's ''

'' instead. Frears turned to screenwriter John Hodge to write the script, partly because of Hodge's experience as a doctor. Hodge has said that he based his screenplay primarily on ''Seven Deadly Sins'', in addition to other journalism and affidavits from cyclists. Hodge says that he ruled out using Armstrong's own accounts of his behavior during this period, and that scenes shown from Armstrong's perspective are fiction.

Casting

Lee Pace joined the cast November 2013.

joined the cast December 2013. To better understand his role, Foster took performance-enhancing drugs while shooting the film.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began October 2013.

Reception

Box office

''The Program'' grossed $3.3 million worldwide. It was released for U.S. rentals on

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

19 February 2016, with a cinema release 18 March 2016.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has a rating of 62%, based on 111 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The site's consensus reads, "Ben Foster's impressive efforts to channel Lance Armstrong are often enough to power ''The Program'' past director Stephen Frears' frustrating unwillingness to delve deeper into its real-life story." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a score of 53 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* *
Official trailer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Program, The (2015 film) 2015 films English-language French films 2015 biographical drama films British biographical drama films French biographical drama films Cycling films Films about doping Films directed by Stephen Frears Films produced by Eric Fellner Films produced by Tim Bevan Films scored by Alex Heffes Films shot in Austin, Texas Films shot in Belgium Films shot in France Films shot in Paris Lance Armstrong Films with screenplays by John Hodge Tour de France mass media StudioCanal films Working Title Films films Doping at the Tour de France Biographical films about sportspeople Cultural depictions of cyclists Cultural depictions of American people 2015 drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films 2010s French films English-language biographical drama films