A Working Title Production a Stephen Frears Film Produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Tracey Seaward and Kate Solomon Screenplay

Home , Alex Heffes, Alpha Dog, A Single Man, Ben Foster, Channing Tatum, David Walsh (journalist)

A Working Title production

A Stephen Frears film

Produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Tracey Seaward and Kate Solomon

Screenplay by John Hodge

Inspired by the book Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong by David Walsh

STARRING

Ben Foster

Chris O’Dowd

Guillaume Canet

Jesse Plemons

Denis Ménochet

Lee Pace

Edward Hogg

And Dustin Hoffman PUBLICITY & PRESS CONTACTS Vértigo Films Phone: 915 240 819 Fernando Lueches [email protected] Borja Moráis [email protected]

"Lance Armstrong surveyed the cycling landscape and thought ‘you can't win without doping’. He had to do it and he believed his teammates had to do it. So, on the US Postal team they established a system of cheating through performance enhancing drugs. It became The Program and if you were on the team you had to be on The Program." - DAVID WALSH – author of ‘Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong’

SHORT SYNOPSIS

From Academy Award® nominated director Stephen Frears (The Queen, Philomena) and producers Working Title Films (The Theory Of Everything, Everest, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), comes the true story of the meteoric rise and fall of one of the most celebrated and controversial men in recent history; Lance Armstrong, the world-renowned Tour de France champion.

The world needs heroes and Lance Armstrong was the ultimate sporting hero. Following a gruelling battle with cancer, Lance returned to his cycling career in 1999 more determined than ever and with his sights set firmly on winning the Tour de France. With the help of the infamous Italian physician Michele Ferrari and team director Johan Bruyneel, he developed the most sophisticated doping program in the history of the sport. This program allowed Lance and his American teammates to dominate the world of cycling, winning the Tour an unprecedented seven times.

However not everyone believed the fairytale…Sunday Times journalist, David Walsh, at first charmed by Lance’s charisma and talent, soon began to question whether the ‘world’s greatest athlete’ was ‘clean’. Walsh sought to unveil the truth, his ensuing battle with Armstrong risked his own career, ostracised him from the cycling community and cost his paper, The Sunday Times, hundreds of thousands in legal costs. But the indefatigable Walsh eventually uncovered the truth when a select few prepared to talk came forward, exposing one of the greatest deceptions of our time.

Inspired by the award winning book ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ by David Walsh, and featuring a stellar cast including Ben Foster (Lone Survivor), Chris O'Dowd (Calvary), Guillaume Canet (Tell No One) and Jesse Plemons (Breaking Bad), THE PROGRAM is a tense and suspenseful thriller.

LONG SYNOPSIS

It is 1993 and 21 year old Lance Armstrong (Ben Foster) is making his debut in the Tour De France. The Sunday Times journalist, David Walsh (Chris O’Dowd) interviews the young Lance over a game of table football. Lance is determined and hugely self-confident, as well as extremely competitive. Chatting with his press colleagues afterwards, David tells them how cocky Lance was. When they ask if he is a contender, David says he absolutely is – in the one day classic races.

On the starting line at a Belgian one day race, Johan Bruyneel (Denis Menochet) tells the young upstart Lance that he will never win as others have more red cells in their blood – they are doping. The race plays out as Bruyneel predicted. Meanwhile in a lecture hall, Dr Michele Ferrari (Guillaume Canet) is learning about trials of the drug EPO. During the race, Lance watches hopelessly as three members of one team drop everybody else and easily finish in the top three places. At the lecture, Ferrari asks about the use of EPO in sport, but is told that would be unethical. Ferrari shrugs. At the Belgian race press conference, Ferrari is on stage with the winners, a member of their team. Questioned as to problems with the use of EPO, he once again dismisses all concerns.

Lance tries to convince his hesitant teammate Frankie Andreu (Edward Hogg) that they have to use EPO to be in with a chance. Lance approaches Ferrari and tells him he wants to join his “program”, but the doctor dismisses him telling him that he doesn’t have the right physique to be a good climber.

Lance buys EPO for his team at a pharmacy in Switzerland. A year later, back at the Belgian one day classic, it is now Lance dropping the peloton and winning the race by a huge margin.

However after the celebrations, Lance starts to cough up blood. His doctor diagnoses testicular cancer, at the third, and final, stage. Treatment begins and Lance is subjected to gruelling rounds of surgery and chemotherapy. He pushes himself even when at his lowest and tries to walk down the hospital corridor, but collapses into a wheelchair.

As he recovers, Frankie and his wife Betsy (Elaine Cassidy) visit Lance in hospital. A doctor arrives for a consultation, and Lance tells his friends to stay.

Lance makes a slow but determined recovery. He travels to Ferrara, Italy, to the home of Dr Ferrari. Through his illness, he has lost the weight required of him and Ferrari is convinced enough by his will to win to take him on. He subjects Lance to a huge range of tests, analysis and training exercises so that he is no longer ‘confined by the limits of his physiology’ and Lance reaches peak fitness, getting to grips with some of the substances and doping methods which would propel his career forward along the way.

During this time, the so-called ‘Festina affair’ has erupted after a team soigneur has been caught with performance enhancing drugs. This has led to police raids across the Tour and the discovery that drug use is rife. Ferrari and Armstrong laugh at them for getting caught. Lance brings Bruyneel on board as director, explaining that following his illness the only team that would take him are the very minor US Postal team. Bruyneel says that they have to go out to win, and Lance says that after his cancer he never wants to come so close to losing again. Lance, Bruyneel and Ferrari head up the team’s rigorous training programme, at altitude.

Lance reunites with agent Bill Stapleton (Lee Pace) who had spotted Lance’s commercial potential before he got sick. Bill now sees an ever more potent story, especially when Lance passionately announces that he wants to start a cancer charity.

It is 1999. David in his press car banters about whether this year really is to be rebranded the Tour of Renewal, after last year’s drugs farce. They say that Armstrong has risen from the dead and as an early supporter David says that he really thinks Lance can win a stage. There is jubilation when Lance does win the opening stage. David writes about the ensuing mountain stage. Wearing the winner’s yellow jersey, Lance starts to attack on the Galibier climb; he breaks away with tremendous power leaving the peloton far below. There is excitement in the press room. David alone is silent. Lance reaches the finish in Sestriere way ahead of the peloton. His previous best in the mountains was 39th. David reminds his colleagues about last year’s doping scandal and that the speeds have gone up this year, but they don’t listen. They reply that the racers wouldn’t be able to hide it. David retorts that Lance rode so fast up the steep mountain that he had to use his brakes. He talks to a young rider who, according to his physiology, should be faster than Lance and who shares his own suspicions with David. Lance then seeks out this young rider and warns him off.

Taking EPO has become part of Lance’s regular race time routine. Motorman delivers the drugs and the team take them in a systematic way. Lance is blasé, asking his soigneur Emma O’Reilly (Laura Donnelly) to dispose of his needles. The TV commentators confidently talk about how the riders are now clean. Lance asks Emma to cover the needle mark on his arm. When the so-called ‘vampires’, the UCI drugs testers, come to check Lance, they are duped into waiting, during which interval Lance is hooked up to a drip to dilute the presence of substances. Emma is massaging Lance when he takes a call to say that one of his tests has come back positive for testosterone. He deals with the problem by ordering a pre-dated prescription of a saddle sore cream, and then jokes that Emma knows enough to bring him down.

Whilst promoting his Livestrong cancer charity, Lance recalls the moment in the hospital where he attempted to walk down the corridor but in his retelling of the story, he refuses the wheelchair.

The next year, he wins the Tour again. At a book signing of his autobiography It’s Not About the Bike, Lance seems to feel uneasy around the cancer survivors that he has inspired.

Dr Ferrari is raided by the police and charged with criminal conspiracy. This news strengthens David’s case against Lance being clean as he knows that Lance had visited Ferrari before his comeback, but the doctor is notably absent in Lance’s book. David is granted an interview with Lance, but Lance turns up with Bill at his side, and in abrasive form. And still the newspaper won’t run a story by David for lack of hard evidence.

Rising star Floyd Landis (Jesse Plemons) is signed to the US Postal team, and tasked with protecting Lance. Floyd comes from a Mennonite community and had to be very determined to forge a career as a cyclist against his family’s beliefs. Lance initiates Floyd into The Program and in 2002 the team are as powerful as ever and Lance triumphs yet again. By now there are more effective tests so Lance and team are also transfusing their own blood to avoid detection.

In the 2003 Tour, Lance achieves his fifth win. Lance is still surreptitiously meeting Ferrari, although Ferrari has now been found guilty and banned from sports and medical practice. Cyclist Felippo Simeoni has testified against him, so Lance approaches him during the next stage and blatantly threatens to destroy him. Floyd watches on with increasing discomfort, but Lance is not to be deterred. The team have now become blasé about their doping: their bus pulls over on a Pyrenean roadside for them to hook up to drips in the midst of the cavalcade. Only Floyd is becoming increasingly uneasy.

The UCI call a meeting with Lance to discuss an EPO test. The official appears anxious as he tells Lance that the test was borderline but not conclusive. Stapleton and Lance are obviously not happy but Lance seems calm, he says that he will leave it to them to do what is best for the sport.

Lance prepares for a press conference anticipating the inevitable question about doping. Once on stage, he is steely eyed and defensive. He reiterates his mantra that he has never tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. David is in the room and probes Lance about the image of cycling and his association with a doctor so heavily embroiled in doping. Lance puts him down and dismisses these challenges, telling them all that they all have to fall back in love with cycling.

Floyd watches on from the back of the room. Later he confronts Bruyneel about the drugs and about the untouchable Lance with his “cancer shield”. Unperturbed, Bruyneel tells Floyd that he can always leave.

Betsy has now heard about David and the two of them talk. She tells him about the conversation in the hospital room, and David in turn reports this to his editor. Now David has started to attract attention. Emma contacts him and passes on all the incriminating evidence that she has. Cyclist Stephen Swart also has information to support David’s case.

David has now gathered enough evidence for his editor to finally agree that he can publish his story in the newspaper, under the headline ‘LA CONFIDENTIAL’.

David is invited to Texas by Bob Hamman (Dustin Hoffman), an insurer for the US Postal team who now has doubts that Lance is entitled to the $5 million bonuses that he is owed for his Tour triumphs. If Lance is cheating in races, then he is also cheating him.

Lance is incensed by David’s story. He rages about Emma, who he presumes tipped David off, calling her an ’alcoholic whore‘, and gives Stapleton a series of commands – to threaten Emma, get Frankie to ‘muzzle‘ his wife, ’stonewall‘ Walsh, find out who he travels with and freeze him out, offer David’s American publisher Lance’s new book to create a conflict of interest. Lance rants that he will not be brought down.

Whilst Lance brings a libel case against The Sunday Times, an arbitration case is mounted against Lance by Bob Hamman. Stapleton threatens Frankie, and Lance defames him to potential employers. At arbritration, Lance arrogantly and angrily deflects all the questions. Bruyneel warns off David’s colleagues at the Tour. The Sunday Times loses to Lance and pays out £300,000 in damages. Hamman also loses to Lance and is forced to pay out the $5 million bonus money, but he tells Stapleton that he knows Lance has lied under oath. Stapleton smirks that Lance will retire and then nothing can touch him.

At what will be his final Tour’s opening press conference in 2005, Lance singles out David and insists that ‘extraordinary allegations demand extraordinary proof‘. He declares that David is taking attention away from the fight against cancer. As they leave, David is told by his colleagues that he can’t travel with them as usual. It would make life too difficult for them. The other reporters drive away, leaving David unable to follow the Tour. Lance wins his seventh consecutive Tour.

The following Tour is won by Floyd, but he gets caught using testosterone. Although he denies it (unconvincingly), he is stripped of his title. Floyd returns to his community. Meanwhile Lance’s time is now spent making mindless commercials and giving corporate speeches.

Lance decides that after four years, he is going to make a Tour comeback. Bruyneel tells him that it is a bad idea - he is too old, it’s vain and they have got away with it until now. But Lance won’t quit, he says he is coming back for the fight against cancer.

Floyd, who is still ostracised from the sport, calls imploring Lance to have him on the team, but Lance dismisses him - sorry, you got caught. The Tour does not go well for Lance. He can’t keep pace with the new star on his team, Alberto Contador, who goes on to win, leaving him in third place. Contador then humiliates him further by telling the press that he allowed Lance his third position.

Meanwhile feeling like he has no options, Floyd decides to turn himself in to the US Anti-Doping Agency’s Travis Tygart. He exposes Lance, who is finally recognised as the leader in a culture of doping. The tide is finally turning against Lance. He receives a lifetime ban from sports. He is a broken man.

Lance is interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, David watches with his editor on TV. Grim faced and broken, Lance finally admits he doped in every Tour that he won. We see Lance cycle to the remote Dead Man’s Hole, and look down into the deep water. Lance tells Oprah that it was a mythic story but it wasn’t true. Lance plunges into the water hole. He cycles home, alone on an empty road.

PRODUCTION STORY

THE PROGRAM follows the meteoric rise and dramatic fall of the shamed seven times Tour de France champion, Lance Armstrong, and David Walsh, the journalist who lifted the stone to reveal the dark underworld of cycling.

The Grand Depart

The idea for THE PROGRAM first came about when director Stephen Frears came across a book review which intrigued him, as he explains. “A man called Tyler Hamilton, who rode with Lance, wrote a rather good book called The Secret Race and I read a review of it. I thought it sounded fantastic.” He quickly approached Working Title, a company with which Frears had already made four films, including the one which launched both his career and that of producers Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner, My Beautiful Launderette. Producer Tim Bevan picks up the story. “Stephen emailed me and said I haven’t asked you to buy anything for a long time, but I’m really interested in the Lance Armstrong story and there are several books coming out about it.”

Frears continues. “My two ‘advisors’ [journalist] Richard Williams and [designer] Paul Smith had told me about David Walsh. We read his book and met him.” Walsh had only written his book Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong the previous year [2012]. Within weeks he had his first meeting with Bevan and Frears. Walsh explains, “It had been about the only story in my journalistic life of the previous 15 years. I started talking and had a sense from Stephen that he just couldn’t believe what he was hearing and he was intrigued. At that time he understood nothing about it but he had a huge desire to learn about it and he was fascinated by it. I knew that his enthusiasm would carry him through on this.”

Tim Bevan details the film’s focus. “The story of this movie is about two characters. It’s about Lance Armstrong, who in the early nineties was a champion cyclist from the United States who’d come to Europe to start cycling in the various European competitions and particularly the Tour de France. And a journalist by the name of David Walsh; David at the time was a correspondent for an Irish newspaper, and continues to be a sports correspondent. In fact he’s a sports editor for The Sunday Times now. It wasn’t actually David Walsh who brought down Lance Armstrong, it was Lance Armstrong really who brought down Lance Armstrong, but David certainly contributed to it. But for the purposes of the film that’s what we do; we run these two guys’ stories in parallel.”

David Walsh first encountered Armstrong rather by chance when he had picked him out to interview in 1993. From this point on, Walsh’s professional life became entwined with Armstrong’s, and still is to this day. Fast-forwarding 20 years, Walsh had just written his book chronicling Armstrong’s too- good-to-be-true rise to the top of the cycling world amidst an endemic culture of performance enhancing drugs use.

From Tim Bevan’s perspective, this was a story which provided an excellent basis for a feature film, as he outlines. “The Lance Armstrong character and the whole idea of cheating, if you like, in sports and doping was something we thought was a really interesting arena. It’s about morality and it’s also a story about now, very much. Hopefully, if the film works, you can take out the cycling element and drop in politics or drop in tabloid journalism or drop in all of the other areas where this sort of moral questionability has gone in the past four, five years.”

Once the production team had settled on Walsh’s book as the basis of the film, the speed that it went into production was incredible, as producer Tracey Seaward explains. “From January [2013] to the end of the year, the book had been read, the script had been commissioned, the film had been

8 put together and cast, and we finished shooting right before Christmas.” Tim Bevan points out that given this was not just a recent tale but an ongoing and evolving story, they needed to work fast. “I realised that if we were going to get this film done we had to get it done quickly, because there’s no point being the second film about Lance Armstrong; you have to be the first film about Lance Armstrong.”

Contre Le Montre

John Hodge was signed up to write the screenplay at somewhat short notice as Tim Bevan relates. “We said to John, here’s a big challenge. Basically you have four weeks to come up with the first draft. He went a little bit white and went away and came up with the first draft in four weeks.”

John Hodge for his part confesses that he was employed on something of an accidental basis. “Working Title were looking for a writer and another producer they were working with said John Hodge is really into cycling, which actually wasn’t the case at all - I cycle to and from work but that is the extent of it.” However Hodge was undaunted given that the story was about so much more than cycling, an idea he expands on. “It was immediately clear to me that here is a modern phenomenon that would be worth having a go at on the big screen. The elements of personal struggle, rise and fall, globalisation, the exploitation of media; so many aspects of modern sporting life and modern celebrity; and the wish fulfilment of a public that wants to invest in heroes and is then disappointed; That cycle that we are all a part of as consumers was something that I was interested in.”

Examining the icon that Lance became, Hodge outlines how the cyclist became the answer to everyone’s dreams. “To the outsider, he seemed like he was the perfect vessel for cycling in the nineties and 2000s at a time when the sport was expanding due to the internet, satellite and communications sweeping all around the world even more than before. There is this really charismatic, handsome, English speaking cancer survivor, who is going to spread the word to the whole world; who is going to transform a niche European working class man’s sport. And he is going to suddenly make it a sport that huge global corporations will want to invest in, Nike and so forth.” There was inevitably a postscript. “Of course the fact that he turned out to be false, as Walsh says at the end of the film, shouldn’t surprise any of us because that was bound to happen.”

In terms of material, Hodge started out with David Walsh, both through his book and in person. Hodge also worked through the many other tales of Armstrong mainly by cyclists. “They are all more or less recounting the same incidents from a different angle”, Hodge explains. “So it was interesting in a way to cross refer the various accounts. Then there were the affidavits that were sworn by many of the former US Postal cyclists [Armstrong’s team] when they were delivering their evidence to USADA [the US Anti-Doping Agency]. They were very helpful. And then various news articles... And of course one of the great things about making a modern sporting film is that YouTube makes everything continuously available. This is true of any sort of sporting hero nowadays; they live their life through social media and through YouTube. And that both helps them in terms of exploiting their celebrity but of course when it comes to things going wrong it works against them.”

When Tracey Seaward saw the early drafts of John’s scripts, she was stunned. “John’s immediate insight into that world was quite extraordinary”, she explains. “The professional consultants who had access to some of the earlier drafts thought it was amazing that he managed to get into the head of cyclists, in terms of that mindset. It’s quite a complicated story to tell with the two perspectives - you’ve got Walsh and Lance, you could say hero and anti-hero but there’s a quality of both of them being heroes and he found this amazing way of balancing that story.”

Frears identifies Hodge as vital in managing to shape the film within the tight time constraints. “I’m not sure I knew what kind of film we were making at the beginning but it was clearly very interesting. We were lucky that we got John Hodge who picked his way through it so very delicately.” Seaward concurs. “He found this way of carefully constructing a rather neat thriller rather than making a history lesson in cycling.” Frears concludes that one of Hodge’s strengths is his ability to distil huge amounts of information and a time span of 20 years into a film of under two hours. “He is very elliptical; he covers an awful lot of things, and I guess they’re the most important things.”

The production’s cycling consultant David Millar agrees, “I was in awe that John Hodge was able to write that just from research, without actually knowing the people and without actually knowing the sport.”

Frears outlines how Millar came to join the production. “We were all learning as we went. I’d been told about David Millar’s book Racing Through the Dark so I spoke to David and he came to England and met with Tim Bevan and Amelia [Granger, Executive Producer] who were very taken by him.”

David Millar defines his role on the film. “I have everything to do with cycling and educating Stephen on the cycling world; from the bike riding, to the history of the sport, to the characters involved and the real life people.”

Bevan brought on board producer Kate Solomon, who had worked for Working Title on earlier titles including United 93. As an expert in researching fact-based material for fiction she was invaluable at this stage, as Bevan outlines. “She’s like a terrier. She went through everybody and anything that had anything to do with cycling and cheating and doping in cycling. And through that you arrive at what is a fiction but hopefully fiction that’s as close to the truth as possible.”

Given the intricacies of the subject matter, it was never going to be an easy project for Frears as he explains. “It was a crash course... I knew nothing, nothing about cycling; nothing about Lance. I had to learn everything; I’m still learning.” What’s more, his friends were obsessed by the detail of it. I remember Paul [Smith] saying well, I hope you’re going to get the bikes right or I hope you’re going to get the clothes right. So there was a lot to learn.” Frears’ friends went from being concerned about accuracy to hugely envious as the production managed to embed themselves with the most informative sources imaginable, as Frears outlines. “David Walsh said to me at one point, ‘well you’re a lot further inside than I ever got’. I was the guest of the Tour de France which meant that I saw things that journalists had never seen. I was in a car behind the front racers and I saw things they’d never seen; they were furious!”

Riding deep in the Tour with the UCI, the sport’s ruling body, gave Frears and his team a fantastic insight into their subject matter, as he tells: “I discovered the craziness that was going on behind the cyclists. The cyclists are like people in a bubble, going straight along. Behind them is all the organisation of the Tour. Also, you start to realise what a huge circus the whole thing is.”

David Walsh was very reassured by the detail that went into the preparation for the film. “When I watch a film about sport, I’m invariably disappointed. It always looks like film people don’t understand what sport looks like or somehow they haven’t been able to get it right.” However, in this film, he continues, “What you’re going to be looking at is going to be a pretty authentic portrayal of how the peloton moves and what happens inside the peloton. I was really cheered by that because the journalist always thinks, we’ve got to be accurate here. This has got to be authentic. I could see there was a fixation on getting this stuff right.”

The Yellow Jersey

It was clear that it was essential to find a special actor to play Lance Armstrong. Tracey Seaward explains, “Stephen said immediately, I’ll make the movie but I can only make it if I find the right person. If you can’t cast the right person to play Lance, there’s no point in making the movie.” Ben Foster immediately came to mind for casting director Leo Davis, as Seaward recalls. “Fortunately, Leo was very clear that Ben had to play Lance so Stephen went to New York to meet him. He needed to be convinced that Ben could physically get to that point: Lance’s musculature, his physiognomy... his physicality has evolved over that extensive period of time.”

Ben Foster recalls a humorous moment when first meeting Stephen Frears for what he had been told was a secret project. “We met at a hotel in the lobby and he comes in and he just stares at me and he says, ‘do you know what this is about?’ And I look at a book that he is holding in his hand and it says Lance Armstrong. So I ask ‘is it about Lance Armstrong?’ And he goes, ‘I knew it was out! I knew it got out! I knew it.’ I said, ‘you’re holding the book’, and he smiled!” Frears told Foster that they were still waiting for the script and asked what he knew about Armstrong. Foster relates, “I fall on the side of a fan and I didn’t know an awful lot, but what I knew was that he’s an incredible athlete and he did what no-one else had ever done. But I didn’t know a whole lot about his back story other than he had just done the Oprah interview.”

Tim Bevan picks up the story, “Stephen looked at some of Ben’s work and went and met him and said that’s it, he’s the man. What we didn’t realise was what a good visual fit he was for Lance because he looks very, very like the real Lance Armstrong. There’s quite a lot of stock footage in the movie from the various cycle races and you can get virtually to a 90 degree shot on the real Lance Armstrong and cut to Ben and you don’t know that it’s not the same guy.”

Following their meeting, Foster had to wait a number of weeks for a script, so he immersed himself in background research. “I just started reading everything. There are a lot of books on the subject and I happened to have a lot of downtime so I started to learn how to think like a cyclist and how to ride a bike with those silly shoes!” Foster had to go through a severe programme of weight and body change as well as cycle training, but was undaunted by these challenges.

Stephen Frears talks about how Foster approached the role following their first meeting. “His research was incredible. The thoroughness which he approached it with - he’s a method actor. Eventually you think ‘this chap knows more about it than I do’. He was very, very impressive.” Showing an impressive degree of discipline, Foster entered a training camp in Boulder, Colorado to achieve the required physicality. He embedded with the Garmin-Sharp cycle team who were participating in the Cross Colorado Tour. There were numerous new challenges to overcome as Foster outlines. “I had never been on a bike with clipless shoes [wherein the shoe is attached to the pedal], so it’s daunting, particularly when you have the opportunity to spend time with a culture that demands such physical mastery over a tool, an instrument.”

Training Camp

For the physical prep work, Foster had a relatively brief initiation, as he explains. “I had about six weeks on a bike and we set up a camp in Colorado with Jesse Plemons.” Plemons had since been cast as Armstrong’s teammate Floyd Landis. Foster continues, “We were trained by Allen Lim [at that time team Garmin-Sharp’s director of sport science] and he gave us a camp one on one.” As neither actor had ever been in clipless pedals, they both suffered a fair amount of falling over, as Foster describes. “It is claustrophobic being trapped into these pedals – it is not a natural device; you want to get out of it. But eventually we could co-ordinate the brakes and the feet.”

Plemons adds, “It’s been quite an experience - just the physicality and getting comfortable on a bike and really trying to get inside the type of guys that put themselves through this much pain daily.”

Seaward sympathises with Plemons. “Jesse had quite a task ahead of him because he had to become Floyd... he had four weeks to become a world champion cyclist.” What proved beneficial for Plemons whilst training in Colorado training was that Allen Lim had also trained Armstrong and Landis, as Plemons outlines. “He was pretty close with Floyd, so it was the perfect foundation to find out more about who Floyd was. Boulder is also a hub for cycling in the States so being around these cyclists and the punishment they go through on a day to day basis was really helpful; the suffering that they endure willingly and gladly. That sort of determines who goes the furthest - how much you can suffer and how much you can endure. That definitely sparked my interest immediately once I got there. Allen had story after story about Floyd.”

Kate Solomon established an effective partnership with Foster whilst he was travelling around Colorado on a bus with team Garmin-Sharp and learning what it was like to be a pro-cyclist. As she explains: “Ben and I ran through this culture document. Whenever I would speak to a cyclist and find out a piece of interesting terminology or something they did as a habit, or if they would mention something about Lance, I would add it to the document and we’d sent it back and forth. And Ben would add his things. He’s a wonderful researcher; he’s just so dedicated to being as close to the reality as he can be.”

Foster discusses how daunting it was to ride in a group for the first time. “You’ve got to hold your line. We were surrounded by a very supportive community who are very concerned about how their community was going to be portrayed, so they don’t want some actor showing up and faking it. This is their world; this is their life... so they wanted to make sure it was accurate. They took very good care of me in terms of training, in terms of giving me a crash course. When it wasn’t on point they’d get me on point. If you worry too much, it’s what they say in cycling and it holds true in any art form or in life: just keep your head down and don’t look back.”

Having seen a picture of Foster and been quite convinced that he could play Lance, David Millar’s first meeting with Foster was as a member of team Garmin-Sharp on the Tour of Colorado. He recounts that experience. “A lot of the guys who were there were ex team mates of Lance. So, Ben got a real idea and spoke to real people who had raced and worked with him.” He concludes, “Seeing his commitment and his appreciation, I had 100% confidence in him there and then.”

Once the production moved to the first locations in the French Alps, Tracey Seaward talks about how Foster’s training programme continued under the guidance of pro-cyclist, Andreas Klier. “It was quite an extraordinary, intense period for Ben, but he took to it amazingly well. The amazing thing I think about it is, when we released our ‘first look’ photograph from the movie of Ben Foster’s Lance Armstrong, subsequently the press have taken it up and some have used it in syndications as Lance Armstrong! So he obviously did it well.”

A sentiment echoed by Frears, “He had to learn not only how to bike; he had to learn to pass the standard that was far beyond anything I could understand. That’s why you had to have David or other cyclists present constantly advising him.” This view of Foster is echoed by Seaward, “He completely immersed himself in the role. That’s the kind of actor that he is, and we were really fortunate to have that.” Hodge is also quick to laud Foster. “It was a classic immersive performance and I thought he was terrific. It was clear before we started filming that he was going to be good; it was a fantastic performance.”

The Pursuit

The second key casting decision was, of course, the David Walsh character, whose pursuit of Armstrong frames the film. For Frears there was no other choice for the role of Walsh than Chris O’Dowd as he relates, “I’ve known Chris for a few years and he’s very, very intelligent. They’re all potty about cycling in Ireland, so he knew an enormous amount. It was driving me on to get the cycling right.” And Frears’ confidence in O’Dowd taking on the role of Walsh absolutely paid off. “He’s very talented. That was the easy bit. He’s very, very intelligent and he plays a journalist well because he’s got such a good head.”

Foster agrees. “Chris is incredibly intelligent, extraordinarily fast and funny and a generous actor... and a very relaxed performer, so that helps us all kind of take a breath.” Hodge echoes this praise and highlights how O’Dowd’s persona made him so ideal for the role. “Chris is a terrific actor and one of the characteristics he brings to it is his likeability and also his low-key integrity. You trust him and he was the ideal guy to take us on that journey.”

Editor Valerio Bonelli explains how central David’s character is within the film. “The more we got into it, the David Walsh investigation story became the pivotal point in the film where you use his character to underline and expose information you need to know. It’s very clever as otherwise it would just be a series of facts. Instead it’s a series of stories which expose the power game and how this situation escalated so that there would be a whistleblower like Floyd Landis.”

“Chris is incredibly empathetic, obsessive,” Seaward adds. “He’s got that real drive. He’s like a dog - he won’t let it go. You’ve got the two heroes of the piece: Walsh and Armstrong; here’s Ben and Chris; they’re really tough characters.”

As for Chris O’Dowd, when he was approached about the role, he read the script and David Walsh’s book and was very happy to be involved. He explains further. “More than anything I think what comes across in the book is that he loves cycling and as a fellow Irishman I can kind of remember the golden age of cycling in Ireland with Sean Kelly and Stephen Roache in the eighties. I think that’s what he felt more than anything - the whole drugs culture had soiled that so badly. I really enjoyed the book and I thought it was a very fair adaptation of it and I was excited. I remember that this weird thing happened before the script came in, I was half way through the book and really enjoying it and I was out for dinner with my wife. This girl came over and said, I genuinely wasn’t eavesdropping but I heard you talking about The Sunday Times and Lance Armstrong. And I said, oh yeah, we were just talking about this book. Then she said: that’s my Dad! And it was David Walsh’s daughter. So we had this connection and I ended up getting his number, and I got in touch with him before I decided to take the film on because I definitely wanted him to be happy that I was portraying him and that he was happy with the project. When he was, I found that it was a big selling point.”

And having Walsh on set for a few days was extra helpful for O’Dowd. “He’s a sweetheart. He takes his job really seriously but he’s a fun guy. I texted him every now and again - more procedural stuff than anything - in terms of how to conduct an interview and things like that. He’s been a great resource and so helpful behind the project. It was good to have him around.”

For his part, when Walsh was asked about who he would like to be cast as him in the film he claims that, “I never presumed to think like that. I couldn’t. I mean for me the thought that I was going to be in the film was enough.” However when he learnt about the casting, he was really thrilled. “When I heard it was Chris O’Dowd - I’d seen Bridesmaids and I thought he was a really endearing, loveable, likeable character in that. I’d seen Moonboy, The IT Crowd and he’s just a very accomplished guy. I

13 loved the fact that he’s about ten inches taller than I am... much better looking! And people were saying to me, Chris doesn’t really look like you, and my feeling was that that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. What I need to do is stop appearing in public; don’t allow anyone to see what I really look like and let people think I look a bit like Chris.”

O’Dowd accepts that there is an added weight of responsibility in portraying a person that he has met, particularly when he finds him so charming. “The one thing he said to me was, ’you know, at times I was an arsehole as well!’ And I kind of like that about him. He doesn’t want to be portrayed as a golden boy or anything.”

Spitting In The Soup

O’Dowd relays what happens to Walsh when he starts reporting his doubts about Armstrong’s too- good-to-be-true comeback following his battle with cancer. “A big part of following the Tour de France as a journalist is getting coverage of the riders; getting close up interviews with them and what not. And if you don’t have that it’s very difficult. The other thing that’s very important is your press car. If you can’t get in the press car you can’t really follow the race. From 1992 onwards, David Walsh had been travelling with these three other guys and they had this very close bond as you would if you were stuck for three weeks in a Renault Logan together.”

As Walsh kept probing and pushing Armstrong in press conferences, his support structures started to collapse around him, as O’Dowd continues. “Armstrong’s people realised that Walsh, was a ‘bad egg’ and the way they decided to attack Walsh was to get to the people around him. They said to them, you’re not going to be able to talk to Lance or any of our riders if you associate with Walsh, and at that point they could no longer travel with him, leaving him on his own in France. That was the end for him of following the Tour de France, which is a very sad ending. Particularly at that stage when nothing had come out. It must have taken a huge amount of character for him to keep going.”

Bonelli’s take on David Walsh is that he really believed in the truth. “This obsession for clean sport and for a fair world – it felt to me that he was a dreamer, a man swimming against the flow.” “Armstrong got to everyone eventually,” O’Dowd concludes about his on screen foe. “He forced writers out, he forced doctors out and he forced journalists out, which is pretty shocking.”

Bevan offers his own take on David Walsh’s character. “He and Lance Armstrong, not as human beings, but in terms of the level of their intensity and them gripping onto a bone and not letting go of it, are not dissimilar in character. He’s stuck with this story when many other people would have faltered. He has a huge moral indignation about people doping in sports and he doesn’t feel that it is right and he’s made it the cause of his life really.”

And what did O’Dowd make of his on screen adversary Ben Foster’s performance on the bike? “He’s really embodied him”, answers O’Dowd. “He’s really committed to it. It’s terrific.”

Polka Dots

Frears and Seaward had only recently completed Philomena, their fifth collaboration together, which had premiered to great acclaim at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, when they launched into production on their new film. Seaward outlines the logistical factors that forced them to start shooting so quickly. “First of all the cycling season; in order to make the film with integrity and to make it look authentic we had to work with professional cyclists, and the professional cyclists’ calendar finishes at the end of September, and then their training generally resumes at some point later in November. So, the only time that we could have access to a core of professional cyclists was

14 going to be in this window.” In addition to this access, the team were shooting in the Alps, so were fighting against the weather, as Seaward explains. “Obviously at this point - we started shooting in the middle of October, way into the autumn in the Galibier, fighting snow - when of course we’re shooting a movie that takes place in high summer. We had a ten day window to shoot in the Alps.”

Frears and team had been visitors of the 2013 Tour for the strategically critical and visually awe inspiring Mont Ventoux stage. They left with a unique insight into what it is really like to be in the thick of the peloton. As Seaward recalls, “The scale of it is just extraordinary. I think unless you’re in it you can’t possibly imagine it, even if you’re obsessed with it and you watch it on TV. Just the excitement of being in there... it’s thoroughly bewitching. It is quite the most extraordinary, majestic event... quite breathtaking.” They would strive to recreate that extraordinary experience on film.

Bevan describes how Millar was focused on achieving authenticity in the film. “He was very anxious that the cycling should be depicted in a way that was as real as possible. You see most cycling on television and you don’t get any idea of the speed that these guys are going at. So one of the challenges, in terms of the way we shot it, was to give a sense of great speed. When shot on television the cycling is king and the camera comes second and of course when you’re doing a movie, it’s the other way round - the camera can become king and the cycling can come second so you can make sure that it really works.”

When visiting the 2013 race in the Alps with Frears and Seaward, Millar recalls being overwhelmed by the scale of the project. “I was asking Stephen, how on earth are you going to recreate this Tour? It’s so big? He said you have to understand that I look at things and I figure out what I can’t do and work back from there.” Millar thought that Frears and Working Title were particularly brave, “One of the reasons there has never been a major motion picture on professional cycling is because no one has taken up the challenge before.”

Camera Bikes

Bevan was keen to emphasise that “the visceral side of cycling is the important thing.” Cinematographer Danny Cohen was a key part of capturing this. Cohen came to the project from a different starting point than the other filmmakers as he explains. “For me, it was a pretty amazing thing to do as I have been cycling for many years, following the Tours through the eighties and nineties and into the 2000s. So I knew the story. I knew the characters and saw them play it out in real life.”

He continues to explain how the filmmaking is multifaceted, in parts encompassing traditional storytelling - bringing to life events that take place in mundane spaces. Then there is the other of the coin: “How to get across the feeling of what it must be like to cycle… and to cycle at speed, uphill and downhill. That was definitely something to play around with lot. Somebody who has watched cycling on TV knows the traditional way, whereby you put a camera on a motorbike and off you go, or there’s a camera on a helicopter. That is the language of cycling films or Tour de France that people are familiar with. We were trying to use other ways to make it exciting to watch.”

Millar concurs that they had to try to avoid the filming looking like TV coverage of the sport. “It’s always very much from an outside looking in and from quite a long way out. We have tried to bring the cameras a lot closer and give a view that no one has seen before and make it a lot more personal. It’s not been easy but it’s a way of looking at the sport that no one has seen before.”

Cohen continues, “I think whenever you get movement on film, or a chance to film movement and have moving cameras, you have to take that chance. What can you do with a conversation between

15 two people in a hotel room? You are limited. Whereas, a conversation between two people on bicycles going at 40 miles per hour, there’s a bit more action going on. I think that’s what is quite fun about the film, that it bumps between quite straightforward stylistic choices and some off-the-wall stuff. We put small cameras on bikes, we used cranes on the back of tracking vehicles, and we used all sorts of different means to get the sense of speed, which was always a bit of challenge. But when it worked in the way we plotted, spiced the story up, giving you an idea of what it must be like to hurtle down a mountain at top speed.”

The Peloton

“It’s a big responsibility to get the detail right”, offers David Millar, “and everybody involved is fully aware of that, from costume, to Stephen, to make-up, to the actors. Everybody wants it to be authentic and respect the sport. Which is very gracious, as it’s a story that is polemic and they could have easily skimmed over the cycling and based it on the human story and the periphery. They have given a great deal of respect to our sport. We are very lucky.” Millar concludes, “Cyclists should appreciate it as there has been a lot of effort put into making it look right.”

Millar was charged with pulling together the pro cyclists required. “We needed ten pros and we were going to get 20 amateurs in France. But it was the end of the season for the pros, so they didn’t want to go and spend two and half weeks in the Alps in October as that’s their holiday time.” Millar however managed to line up a group of seasoned European campaigners: “Andreas Klier, who has been a great road captain and who had retired from racing this year; Servais Knaven, who won Paris- Roubaix; they are two of the greatest one-day riders in the world. And then some young British pros and Yanto Barker who was the number one British rider this year; Also some really young guys - British and a couple of Americans.” These ten led an additional group of amateur cyclists, as Millar explains. “The 20 amateurs were great; they did so much and never complained. It wasn’t ideal working conditions - it was often super cold and they were standing around never knowing what they were doing. They were replicating racing when they weren’t at their race fitness. They were riding up the Galibier which is 2,400m and it was the end of October.”

For Cohen, using experienced riders was absolutely essential to making a convincing picture. “I couldn’t envisage it happening in any other form”, he says. “You need people that are comfortable cycling very fast, very close to other bicycles, very close to cars, extraordinary people – you need a professional cyclist. There’s no other profession where people employ all those different skills that suit what we were trying to do.” Cohen also knew that the actors must become very confident at cycling, as he outlines. “Ben trained and nailed that and then we put him into a bunch of pro cyclists who were able to nurture him and give him the confidence to cycle at speed. It is pretty amazing. One small mistake and it would have been horrendous, so to get through the three weeks in the Alps without a scratch - I am still quite staggered.”

Bonelli, tasked with intercutting the filmed footage with archive material, was very impressed by the cinematography: “I think Danny has done so well in offering the film interesting camera angles so you can tell the story from the point of view of the cyclist. I think you can say that this has never been done before, in terms of being with Lance when he is going up the Alps, putting small cameras on the bottom of the bikes. You see the mechanic fixing the gears when they are on the road and then you see him coming out of the car and you witness close-up this crazy world of adrenalin and excitement and danger that they ride at 80kmh downhill and all that is in the film.”

Foster talks about what it felt like to film the cycling scenes, knowing that cycling was being presented in a way that has not been seen before. “Danny Cohen is just an animal... loves getting in it, is up for anything, very focused. We had a great crew and these are guys who like to steal and

16 grab.” Foster concludes that the approach was never to completely recreate the races. “I think we were paying tribute to many of the races. Some people who were there when we were shooting, that had been there with Lance, they said wow it was just like that, or those shorts were wrong and it was a rainy day not a sunny day and he pumped his fist twice in the air... And you get stuck in the details. So again Stephen and our feeling has been to do your homework and then let the thing be what it is; because it is not a documentary - it is a story about a rider whose character name is Lance Armstrong.”

Foster also reflects on the huge value that the pro cyclists brought to the production and to him personally, “If I am going to think that, man, I just got on the bike for the first time six weeks ago and now I have to wear a yellow jersey in the peloton and climb the Alpe d'Huez, it’s not going to work. So faith is belief and I happen to be surrounded by a lot of men who’ve lived that dream, who’ve ridden the Alpe d’Huez and helped other guys climb it and win it. So I was in very good hands.”

Pro cyclist Andreas Klier was hugely impressed with Foster’s development on a bike as he remembers. “His progression is a big one. He’s learning very fast. It’s how to look like a pro without being a pro ever in your life. So I think this is a skill of an actor to a, believe the person who tells him something and b, to do it then also, and he has no problem at all now. He changed big time on the bike.”

For David Millar, the research that Frears, Hodge and the producers did by following a stage of the Tour was invaluable to their understanding of it. He explains, “They saw what the event was like and the sheer scale of it. I was blown away by them really. When they came, I thought that one of the reasons that a cycling film had not been made before was because it seems quite impossible to recreate it. They found a very happy medium making it look real. They did a good job.”

Hors Categorie

Jesse Plemons talks about the immense challenge of riding the Tour route. “Once we got to France, the mountains are unbelievable, it almost doesn’t make sense that these guys are capable of doing this and at a pace of 25 to 30 miles an hour uphill it was really surreal and we were sort of thrown into the fire and just have to keep peddling.”

Foster agrees that riding the Alpe D’Huez is a near impossible mission, as he jokes, “It shouldn’t be done on a bike at all!” For Foster, mimicking Armstrong on a bike was an added challenge. “Finding a posture that was representative of Lance’s signature was very important. So getting positioned on the bike and looking at his peddle stroke and noticing that his heels are slightly out and it is more of a duck peddle, and he has an arch in his back and he shifts his hips underneath. He is almost bird like - he’s like a vulture or a hawk or a coiled cobra. So finding a position that was natural within my body but also that was representative of his signature was something that we spent a lot of time refining. That was very important, for anybody who loves cycling knows that.”

One of the most daunting aspects of the shoot was filming on the cobbles on a very wet day; a very difficult road surface, as Foster explains. “You can’t brake on the cobbles or you are down and then your knee caps are busted on the cobbles. But I actually liked it more because you’ve got to bounce, you’ve got to be really in it and you have to be able to take some abuse. It is sliding and it is less linear.” Full concentration was required, but these scenes ending up with Foster winning the approval of the real cyclists. “I am on my bike and it is pouring with rain and you are just following a truck and feeling this storm of cyclists behind. They hit the brakes; I just missed the truck, went onto a field and pulled off through the mud back onto the road. I think that was the one day when I actually got the peloton on my side as Ben the Actor because Lance would’ve done that; there was

17 this great race where Lance, cuts through the field. So after that they were very supportive. I think it took that rainy mess and danger for them to be okay with me.”

And for Foster, having Millar on set was crucial to making the cycling in the film work, as he outlines: “David Millar is a legend. He’s been the cycling conductor. He pulled in his friends and some guys from the Garmin team and riders from other teams, and he kept his eye on how to represent cycling in a way that the cycling community can stand behind. David was after the essence and the feeling; the essential, the ecstatic experience of what does it mean to ride for six hours and keep suffering and move through; how does a peloton breathe; how does it migrate. We were very blessed to have Millar’s eye on it because it is sharp.”

It’s All About The Bike

The film’s on-set cycle mechanic Jeff Brown had for many years worked as a mechanic for Lance Armstrong’s US Postal Team. As someone who had known the cyclist well, his take on the portrayal of Armstrong is pertinent. “When you look at Ben on the bicycle and the way he’s transformed his mannerisms,” Brown reports, “everything is very, very close. It’s really uncanny.”

Brown got a huge kick out of being involved in the film, both as a cineaste himself, and also as it felt like reliving some historical moments, both in the Alpine scenes, and those based on Armstrong’s early years. He was particularly struck by the accuracy of the cycling scenes. “Everything that they have done so far has been like a complete flashback. It’s like they have some sort of secret technology that they are tapping my memory banks and then putting it on the screen. Everything I have seen so far has been like, wow, this was the way it was.”

For the cast, it was invaluable to have Brown and Millar on board, as Jesse Plemons summarises. “David Millar is a great resource to have. Pretty much anything you can think of you can ask him, he’s seen it; he’s been there and done it. And Jeff’s a great guy. They were just right in the centre of this world. It’s invaluable to have these guys around and it gives you a little more confidence coming into such a unique world and culture.”

For David Millar, the whole experience was illuminating. “As an outsider coming in to do a movie, you think you do it in chronological order and it just doesn’t work like that. It’s done around the locations and the timeframes, sometimes we would move three years in one day. The morning would be 1999, the afternoon would be 2004. The costume department were incredible and also the props – with the bikes, the costumes changes, measuring up the riders, the different shoes, the different bikes.”

Alan McDonald came to the production design of THE PROGRAM from a position of knowing nothing about cycling. His first challenge was finding the correct bicycles spanning a period from 1994 to 2012 as he relays, “A lot of the bikes are museum pieces now and we had to source bikes, hero bikes particularly for Lance, and then the related teams. It was like a domino theory: you found one bike through one dealer, that dealer would then put you in touch with another dealer, so it was like a huge network. It took us four months to find all of the bikes. That was the first challenge.”

Lance’s Eddie Merckx hero bikes from his early Motorola team days were the most difficult to source. That notwithstanding, McDonald also had to kit out around 15 teams with bicycles and costumes. “We were very lucky; we worked with a company called Condor Cycles who helped us in our process. It’s not just the research on what the bikes are; it’s the liveries - the graphics on them. There’s an attention to detail in terms of design in its original form that we have to recreate as accurately, hopefully 100%, as possible.” Given the time span featured and with the added

18 complexity of bikes and featured teams changing every year, it was a battle to get everything right but they made it work. “We hoovered up every last one, and I think we’ll have a big auction next year once everything has been approved and finished. It will be most entertaining. A lot of the dealers sold us the hero bikes on condition that they could buy them back because they’re too precious to people. Also, a lot of the professional cyclists who were involved in the peloton were asking to buy bicycles, saying ‘that was the bike I rode in 1994’. The fact that professionals want to buy bicycles is a testament to an achievement in my mind.”

Etapes

The vast majority of the film was shot on location rather than in a studio. The cycling scenes were shot at iconic French mountain locations that included Col du Galbier, La Grave, which stood in for Sestriere and probably the most mythical peak of the Tour, L’Alpe d’Huez. The production also used Charleville, Maing, which stood in for the flat landscape of Northern France whilst the town of Bouillon in Belgium was the setting for the early Fleche-Wallone race.

The Alps were always going to prove a concern for the production as Seaward explains, “We arrived in the beginning of October to rehearse and there was incredible snowfall, which really made us confront the reality of our location.”

David Millar stresses the tight frame, “The biggest hurdle was getting it all together before winter arrived, if we wanted to film in the Alps and get the cycling stuff done. Also, it needed to be the end of the season where we could use pros; even I couldn’t be there until October as I was racing. It became very much a race against time. In some ways it was a hindrance but it actually benefited us as we had to be very focused and nail it.”

In spite of such practical concerns, Danny Cohen insists that, “Location over studio offers up certain veracity, cinematographically.” Frears particularly favours shooting on location, a practice that Cohen supports. “Watching a film is about trying to make something real in front of the camera. Real light in a hotel room or a house instantly offers you something to work with; whereas if you’re working in a studio, it is a little bit more restrictive. In a weird way, if you are presented with something that is concrete you then work within those restrictions. Inevitably there are always limitations in a studio. Location work frees you up as you are instantly presented with something you can either work with or work against, which is an interesting way of doing stuff.”

To create the effects whilst capturing the action shots, Cohen employed complex kit and methods, including a camera tracking vehicle leading the peloton, buggies on the side, plus cameras on the bikes. “Hopefully in watching the film you will notice none of that”, Cohen offers. “That’s the beauty of it. The technology, all the equipment, all the different bits of camera and other stuff that comes with making this sort of film, that gets chucked to one side. What’s interesting is the images that help drive the story along. You need to do whatever you can to make interesting pictures stand out and make the technology irrelevant. So we used a ton of different sorts of cameras and different sorts of rigs but weirdly none of that is important if what you’re producing is interesting picture wise.”

Having sourced the kit required for the design, McDonald’s next concern was even more challenging. “The second issue is how you stage the races with very little money, portraying a world that is enormous; the scale of the Tour de France is enormous; the scale of the peloton is 50-200 cyclists. But there was a very clever working out with Danny Cohen and with Stephen and the costume team and how we were able to portray a scale with minimal resources.”

Seaward interjects that one of the immense tasks faced by Costume Designer, Jane Petrie was to outfit the cycling cast over the lengthy time scale. “Jane had to create 200 different teams all in all for the different years that we were showing in the Tour.”

“The starts and finishes of races particularly in cities, were the particular challenge”, says McDonald. “These are enormous in terms of spectators and the caravan. We watched the finish in Mont Ventoux: you’ve got 250,000 people there - when it gets to Alpe d’Huez it goes up to 500-750,000 people so we had to obviously condense our frames to maintain the impressions of the scale. So it’s smoke and mirrors; it’s illusion. And the illusion has paid off.”

The necessity to replicate the vast scale of the Tour is echoed by Seaward: “You can’t have 50,000 spectators; you can’t have that cavalcade, so you have to have a really delicate mix between archive and our material. We’re blending that, and it’s working really effectively which just shows how well Danny Cohen has shot it and how brilliant Ben and the other guys are, because you have to be able to, rather seamlessly, intercut our material with the archive. We’ll be using lot of news footage from the time as well.”

Bonelli found the archive footage an immense resource, as he explains. “For my work, every time I have a problem I go into the archives, I go into the real footage and I always find a sound bite from a commentator or journalist who unblocks my problems and everything makes sense. It’s just incredible because the reality of what happened is stronger than any fiction or film, in a way.”

As well as the action scenes, McDonald points out that there were also the interiors to consider. “The other contrast is dealing with the huge landscape and then going into tiny hotel rooms. There’s this beautiful contrast between huge spaces and claustrophobic spaces. Understanding how the cyclists live when they’re on the Tour during the racing season was fascinating to me. So the contrast in scale was also very interesting. It’s all about putting Lance and a lot of the characters in the film in little boxes that contrast with the big landscapes; the enormous contrasting to the claustrophobic.”

And the film doesn’t just cover Armstrong’s life on the Tour, as McDonald reminds us. “Then of course we have Lance’s house and suddenly we were able to dramatically and simply illustrate the wealth that he generated and the scale and lavishness that this young man achieved from a very humble background. So the contrast in scales often implies economic notions.”

The look of the film was also guided by McDonald’s observations of the cycling world. “The two things that struck out: one was that we were dealing with huge landscapes - naturalistic, organic colour; and another was the imposed plastic colour. The bicycles, the outfits, the hotel rooms, the interiors were a complete contrast to the landscape. I relished the challenge of working with really bright, garish colours because of that juxtaposition. . When we went into the interiors I was keen to introduce as much as I could of organic materials, there’s a lot of wood in the interiors, and there’s a bit of marble and stone so it was trying to integrate the two worlds, the organic and the naturalistic with the plastic colour.” McDonald concludes, “Plastic, garish colour is always something I have avoided in my job so I relished the chance.”

Omerta

Guillaume Canet plays Dr Michele Ferrari who masterminds both the training for Armstrong and his team and the doping. Ferrari is shown as ambitious, driven and ruthless. For him though, winning the Tour is a secondary goal, as Canet explains. “It’s about the scientific breakthrough; I think that’s his passion. What pushes him to go so far is the progress that he could make in science and his research. I’m sure he’s interested in the sport and the victory but I think the most important thing

20 for him is to be sure that his work and research have succeeded.” Ferrari and Armstrong bond so well because they share the same drive for success. Canet explains more. “Nothing is going to stop them, even if they have to lie - because they’re really good at lying and hiding things and pursuing their fight in to be the best ever. That’s why I think they worked so well together because they had a relationship of trust, and they’re protecting themselves.”

The drug that Ferrari discovered to be so powerful in enhancing cyclists’ performance was EPO . John Hodge explains how EPO works, at its most basic. “In terms of the benefits, it is pretty simple: you get more oxygen so you go faster.”

As the story progresses, Walsh gathers more and more evidence from the detractors who refuse to be intimidated and silenced by Armstrong. His elaborate web of deceit starts to unravel in dramatic style. Frears distils the core of Armstrong’s story, “Eventually the whole thing turns on the fact that Armstrong learnt to ride in the mountains, or he took drugs in order to ride in the mountains, which is how he became a winner. He went from being a one day racer to being a mountain racer really in a sort of Frankenstein-ian way.”

David Walsh remembers something that Frears said to him as they developed the film, “It was like he lifted up a stone and he couldn’t believe the under-life that he saw when the stone was removed. Just things crawling around everywhere, and he wanted to find out about it.”

As O’Dowd puts it, “I think people will know he’s a cheat and all of that, but I think they’re not necessarily going to be ready for the manipulation and the downright doggedness.” “It’s such an interesting world”, states Frears, “and at the centre of it all is, I don’t know if you call him a criminal, but he’s a very, very clever fellow organising it all. It’s a good story.”

Of course there is a bigger picture that has to be acknowledged as Hodge is quick to point out. “Even to be the bottom ranked professional cyclist is already a super human effort. These young men have given everything. It’s a tragedy but the cyclists themselves should not be held entirely to blame because there was a conspiracy - I use that in the loosest possible sense - of see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil; an agreement between the media and the cycling infrastructure not to spoil things by asking too many questions. ” He concludes, “That’s what made Walsh unpopular was that he had this irritating habit of asking questions.”

It was crucial to the film to be as objective as possible, as Bevan outlines. “I think it’s important in a movie like this one to try and be as bird’s eye as you possibly can in terms of the way you depict and present the character and the events, and try and allow an audience to make up their mind for themselves about what they think about it. Because you can construct an argument that everybody was cheating and everybody was doping inside the sport of cycling and so it wasn’t that big a deal to dope because everyone else was and he was just better at it than everyone else.”

Foster agrees with Bevan. “This film is going to ask a lot of questions and you are going to fall on either one side of the other – either Lance Armstrong cheated and lied and the only reason he won was because he cheated and lied and he is a doper or you can look at it and say he was one of the greatest cyclists of all time and he did what he thought he needed to do within a time where everyone else was doing similar things, he just did it better.”

“I would like to say that in Lance’s time, the sport was probably as brutal as it could have ever been”, Jeff Brown interjects. “Lance actually fought the ultimate battle in professional cycling. He grabbed all the weapons and walked away at the end. Whether he won or lost, that is beside the point. The important point is, I think, is that during Lance’s time, it was a war zone and Lance was the greatest

21 warrior.” And Brown points out that it took more than EPO to push Armstrong to the top. “There was nobody who trained harder than him. There was no one that was more determined to win. The work that he put in to get where he got, to win those races I think is unprecedented to be honest. People cannot forget that aspect of it. Okay, the other issues, fair enough. There are no free tickets in life, there is no free ride. And Lance did not have a free ride; he worked for what he got, in the context of that time, that’s for sure.”

A thought echoed by Tim Bevan. “This film is about something that wasn’t great that happened in a sport that many people love. And there’s an element of a thriller in it. The morality of it, if you like, is really for the audience to decide and I think the morality of it will be all over the spectrum. And what people think of Lance will be all over the spectrum.” Bevan adds that there is a surprise appearance towards the end of the film in the form of Dustin Hoffman, who plays insurance man Bob Hamman. He explains more, “I don’t think you expect to see Dustin Hoffman in this film but I think that given that he in the greatest investigative journalism film ever, it’s fantastic to have him playing a cameo in this.” He continues, “What’s really important in these films where you are depicting real people is that you really believe in whoever you get to play the various parts, and I think we’ve done very well in that respect. Bevan insists that there was a responsibility to be even-handed. “I don’t think anyone really wants to go and see that film which is just basically kicking at somebody. So I think it’s much more balancing. Because he was ill early on in his career and very sick and that carries a lot of emotional weight inside the movie so that it does push one’s emotional reaction of the film in a more favourable direction.” Frears concludes, “It’s a very, very complicated story.”

Chris O’Dowd, looks at the story from another vantage, “In an age when journalism is getting a particularly bad rap, and rightfully so, it’s good to see that there are people who are reporters more than anything else; people who report the truth; because that’s been lost in journalism.”

“The reason I think Armstrong’s an interesting character” asserts O’Dowd, “isn’t necessarily the fact that he was cheating, but the fact that he was such a manipulator. He ruined people’s lives and ruined people’s careers just to get ahead. That’s more unforgivable than anything he put into his body.” And the film had to strive to be authentic in order too, as O’Dowd stresses. “I think in a film where essentially the premises of a man trying to find out the truth, it would be weird if we weren’t telling the truth. I think it’s an accurate portrayal of the book that it’s based on.” Walsh chimes this sentiment. “Yes, I think the story is truthfully and honestly told. I have no doubt about that. John went to a lot of lengths to get things right. I think the film is going to have a greater truth and the truth of objective accuracy. I think this film is going to give people a sense of, what it was really like.”

Making a film about real people brings it own responsibilities as Seaward points out, “You have a responsibility to the audience and a responsibility to their living persons. In regards to Lance and all the people involved, we’ve tried to remain as impartial as possible. It’s like when Stephen and I made The Queen, you are talking about living persons, and you have an obligation to be respectful of their lives. We’ve really done our best to tell the story as truthfully and authentically as possible.”

As someone still working in the sport, Brown is well placed to comment on whether cycling can now be said to be drugs free. “I would like to think, in a positive vein, that the door on one era has actually closed and we are now opening the door to a new era. And I can see it.”

Tim Bevan joins in Brown’s aspiration for a cleaner future. “One hopes that this will be effectively a full stop to these events. And there’ll be another chapter and a great chapter to come.”

Directeur Sportif

Working with the director was an experience for Foster, as he explains. “Stephen Frears is enigmatic. He pretends he is not paying attention to certain things but then he can be across the room and hear a whisper and he feels a room. And he’s not beyond chaos, but he is an instinctual filmmaker and very much a composer. You can see him behind the monitor and he is almost keeping time; you see his hand moving, and it is not just with the way that it sounds but it is the way that the scene feels and he’s keeping time with the emotional build. When it finishes it is almost as though he is finishing a piece of music. He is going to keep going until he gets what he feels. And that is a rare gift.”

“He has been making films for 50 years,” Cohen adds, “and what is amazing about the films he has made is that they are not alike which is quite unusual. His films are so different. Each time he has reinvented what’s he is trying to do and the story he is trying to tell.”

“He’s got an appetite for telling stories, and great stories,” agrees Seaward. “He’s got an extraordinary questioning brain and he doesn’t stop.” She goes on to underline what a feat the production proved to be. “It was quite hard to shoot. We shot in the Alps and we shot in the north of France; We went to Belgium for cobbles, we came back to London, then we went to Austin and we did all of that in about eight and a half weeks. It was quite an undertaking, as it would be for anybody, regardless of their age. He’s a champ.”

Bevan concludes, “One of the things that he’s brilliant at is energising. Because there’s energy in performance, which is a je ne sais quoi for the audience - the audience hasn’t got a clue that that’s what they are looking at because it’s part of the magic of cinema.”

The Champs-Elysées

The film reached the finish line after an incredibly concentrated timeframe. For Walsh, his history with Armstrong was the most epic story, culminating as he thought at the time, in writing his book. “I thought I said everything that could be said and the only way I could make Seven Deadly Sins as quickly as I did was to make it personal. Just to write it like a long diary entry. This is where I started on this journey and this is where I’ll finish it.” He continues, “It’s been an extraordinary experience to think that within a year of me starting the book, the film had been completely shot. How many times does that happen in life? Somebody has written a book, the book goes into shops. 11 months later and the film is shot.”

And the overall experience of filming for Millar? “I can’t believe we got through two weeks [of cycling in the Alps] with no crashes, we had no accidents. That says a lot about the skill of the guys and the respect they had for each other.” Seaward couldn’t agree more. “It was a great relief to be able to pull off the couple of weeks that we had in the Alps, that we got through that and that the material was great and nobody got injured.”

“I think it’s the most challenging film I have cut so far,” concludes Bonelli, “as there many ways of telling the story and so much information you can hold so you can create the next cliff hanger.” Frears elaborates. “Information was coming in the whole time and gradually what you’re doing is synthesising everything and coming to the point where there is a script and there’s a story; because, if anything, there was too much information.” Bonelli hopes that the audience will come away with a greater understanding of the complexity of the subject. “How a human being became more and more corrupt due to a thirst for power and how David Walsh’s quest is the light in this story. He was trying to look for the truth, he didn’t necessarily want to bring Lance down, but found he was up against the system.”

For Hodge, the actors have made the film what it is. “That’s what I’m most pleased by - a fantastic performance by all our leads. That’s what makes the film.”

Foster, for his part, concludes, “It is an hour and half of entertainment; tell a story and hopefully come away feeling a little more compassionate or a different way of thinking. A little bit more connected to your fellow man. I guess that is the only goal.”

O’Dowd meanwhile hopes that viewers will leave with a clearer view of the story. “I think the audiences will be really thrown by how vindictive, how manipulative and how full bloodedly selfish Lance really was. As well as how there are still good journalists left in the world.”

Seaward is proud of an aim the film set out to achieve “To realise the world of cycling as respectfully as possible. It’s a huge community. We just hope we’re doing their world justice.”

And the final word on a film about Lance Armstrong goes to director, Stephen Frears. “He’s the most complicated man in the world. I hope he has a good analyst.”

DAVID WALSH Q&A

What was your impression of Lance when you first met him, to interview him for your book?

DW: The first time I met Lance was on the 1993 Tour. The idea I had for the book was to write a Tour de France based on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The opening chapter I wanted to be a bright-eyed rookie riding his first Tour. The guy I picked on was the youngest guy in the race, an American called Lance Armstrong. I liked the name, I liked the fact that he spoke English, I liked the fact he had a good amateur career. So I went to see him and spent three hours with him on the first rest day. He was hugely impressive. I liked him, he was charismatic, and yes, he was brash, he absolutely knew what he wanted. I knew this guy was going to leave his mark on the Tour de France. I didn’t think he could ever win because everything on his record said he is not really a top climber, he is not a top time-trialist. But all the one day races, cycling’s great classics, Lance was going to be the man for them. And most of all he had this will to succeed. He said to me at one point, the team bosses tell me I am here to learn because I am a first year pro. I am not here to learn, I am here to win.

What about Lance made you believe that he was not destined to win the Tour?

DW: Physiologically he didn’t look like a guy who was ever going to be a great climber. His upper body was too big and there was nothing in his record that said that he would be good enough to win the Tour in terms of all those long climbs in the Alps and the Pyrenees. But what you knew is if there was a flat stage in the Tour he would likely win one of those and in 1993 he was as good as his word. In a relatively flat stage, he got away in a group and he won the sprint.

In Fleche-Wallonne Lance he is outpaced by the Gewiss team. Why is that a significant moment?

DW: Late in 1993 he became the third youngest guy to win the World Championship. He really rode superbly well and he became this superstar and that was the kind of race I thought he could win, the one day races. But in 1994 and 1995 Lance’s career didn’t progress in the way that people thought it would. In that famous Fleche-Wallonne race, a one day classic that should have suited Lance really well, three guys from the team being coached/medicated by Dr Michele Ferrari break away. Lance tries to get across; he is very strong but he can’t. Now in cycling, for three guys from the one team to be able to break away from the pack is virtually unheard of, it is the kind of thing that by the law of averages should never happen. Anyway three guys from Gewiss-Bladon finish first, second and third and Lance thinks this isn’t right - these guys didn’t do that without the assistance of the drug that was the rage at the time, EPO. And of course afterwards this feeling that they had cheated was exacerbated as Ferrari was condoning the use of EPO.

If you were Lance Armstrong you were saying, you know what? I didn’t start this but these guys are doing EPO and if we are going to have any chance we’ve got to do exactly the same. So there was born the kind of raison d’être for the doping. By 1995 Lance and his team mates are using EPO.

Was EPO a big story at the time?

DW: Sandro Donati who had worked for the Italian Olympic committee could see that EPO was taking over the cycling peloton. He wrote what was called The EPO Dossier and that dossier was handed to his bosses in the Italian Olympic Committee and they refused to deal with it. When Donati eventually gave the dossier to journalists at L'Équipe, the number one cycling paper in the world, they did a huge investigation and they asked the then president of the UCI, Hein Verbruggen, what do you think of all this? EPO is everywhere, they are all cheating. And Verbruggen said the problem we have in cycling is that journalists just want to write about doping all the time. So in a way you

25 have the people who should have been patrolling the sport, the custodians and the police, who are basically complicit in the cover-up. And doping then became rampant, absolutely rampant.

Prior to 1994 cyclists used such substances as amphetamines, cortisone, testosterone and anabolic steroids. But this new drug EPO, along with blood transfusions, worked in a different way.

DW: These new drugs don’t enable a man to the get the best out of himself, they create a new man. When you go up a mountain your weight is terribly important - the lighter you are the more effective you will be on the climb. Some boys are born too big to be great mountain climbers. EPO can transform them, they can stay the size they are and EPO will give them a supply of oxygen, and then the fact that you are big and strong is an advantage. So it basically turned the Tour de France on its head in terms of the potential of some people to win the race.

And Lance Armstrong was one of these guys. He was too big to win without help.

DW: Where Lance was brilliant was, he knew doping was the key, but only if he did everything else correctly. Lance organised the smartest training programme for himself and his team, he made sure that their diet was absolutely the best and he made sure their equipment was the best. Ferrari was a doper but he was also an excellent coach in terms of giving guys training programmes and getting them doing interval work on very steep mountains. All of that was excellent but if Lance Armstrong didn’t take EPO he wouldn’t have won the Tour de France.

And how exactly does EPO help?

DW: EPO generates the production of red cells in your blood. As your blood gets more red cell rich, you can now do things in the mountains especially that you couldn’t dream of doing. The efforts that you make don’t take nearly as much out of you because you have all these red cells helping you. And of course many cyclists died because their blood got so thick that it turns to a treacle-like substance, clots when you are asleep. All of that was going on and cycling was still turning a blind eye.

When Lance Armstrong came to win his first Tour, the UCI know all these guys are using EPO, they know they have got a test in the pipeline that the World Anti-Doping Agency has funded. All the UCI had to do was say, guys, we will freeze all your samples and we are going to test them in a year and a half’s time. But they didn’t want to do that. They had a tolerance of doping that lead to huge problems for the sport.

What happened at the 1998 Tour when team Festina’s Willy Voet was arrested for carrying drugs?

DW: After that, the police knew that these guys were all using drugs. They now had a reason for raiding teams, and pretty much everywhere they went in 1998 they found drugs. The riders protested that they were being harassed, and what you had a sense of was that they had become so accustomed to taking drugs that they felt it was their entitlement. And that race as a sporting event, it was a joke. But a sad joke in which we the public are being duped by these guys, and, you have to believe, their team managements because lots of the doping programmes were team controlled, sponsors, who would have known things, race organisers who knew things. It was just one big conspiracy to defraud the public. So, I think that had a huge impact on a lot of people in relation to the 1999 race which was Lance’s comeback race.

And whilst this is all going on, we now know that Lance is preparing his comeback with Dr Ferrari.

DW: And then later that season, Lance rode the Tour of Spain, a tough, murderous three week race. He had ridden the Tour de France four times and he had never come even close. His best place was 36th; he never competed in a mountain stage. Now he has come back after life threatening cancer, and he finishes fourth. Something has changed. Lance to all intents and purposes has been reborn.

What was your reaction to Lance dominating in the mountains at the Tour de France in 1999?

DW: That race started at Puy de Fou; Lance blasted everybody. It was an ominous performance. Then we came to the mountains and the first stage was to Sestriere. Lance had ridden it four times but we’d never seen him in the lead group in the mountains. On that day to Sestriere not only did he ride with the big guys but at the end he rode away from them and won on his own. I was in the press room that day. There were eyes being raised to heaven and people shaking their heads. So you started to look at Lance closer and closer. He was asked, last year we had the Tour de Farce, what do you think about cycling now? Lance looked with this sensorial look and said, cycling has changed and journalists have to fall in love with the race again. You guys have to realise that the people who are winning stages and leading the race are great champions and you have to report it that way. Everything that Lance did in my eyes wasn’t proof of his innocence but was further reason to disbelieve him.

What ratio in the press room were believers versus non believers?

DW: I’d say 60% blindly believed and 40% had real doubts. Now out of those 40%, 36% were happy to suppress those doubts. If you read their copy, it looked like they believed in Lance. If you spoke to them honestly and intimately, they would tell you they didn’t really believe him. I used to rail against that at the time. I’d say you can express your scepticism. And they would say, and get sued? And have Lance put me in his black book and have me blacklisted? And having no access to the team? Everyone wants a Lance interview so journalists were trying to protect themselves. By protecting themselves in that way, in my view, some of them were knowingly propagating a myth.

By the time it came to Lance winning the race, I’d cleared my head. There’s a pressure to acknowledge this as a great story. It’s the most feel good story maybe we’ve ever known in sport. But I spoke to my boss and I said I don’t believe this guy is clean and I can’t write with any enthusiasm about his victory. Then, to his credit, he said if that’s what you believe, then that’s what you’ve got to write. We wrote a story in The Sunday Times on the Sunday that Lance won his first Tour de France. There is a sentence in that piece that said ‘today a guy from Texas is going to ride down the Champs-Elysées in the jersey of the Tour de France winner. There are times when it’s right to applaud, but there are also times when it’s right to keep your arms down by your side and do nothing. In this case, the need for an enquiry is overwhelming.’ Of all the pieces I’ve ever written in 35 years, the most negative reaction I got to was to that article. Every single reader who emailed or wrote letters to the editor, they all said how appalled they were by that piece.

After all that you had been through, did you ever fear for your career?

DW: Honestly I didn’t. I felt The Sunday Times’ backing was 100%. I mean, right up to the point where Armstrong sued us. Then we had to look again because it was going to cost us serious money.

Others who spoke out against Lance were thoroughly vilified by him during the ensuing investigations. The Lance machine’s treatment of these people was less than admirable.

DW: It was brutal, brutal the way that Lance tried to crush everybody that got in his way. To call Emma O’Reilly a whore was truly despicable. To dismiss Betsy Andreu as a crazed bitch was so

27 wrong, so unfair. He made an illusion to Stephen Swart’s family which was just awful. He called Greg LeMond a drunk. It was so beyond the pale. Everybody who was involved in this story, adversaries of Lance, they would all say that the doping was bad, but not nearly as bad as the bullying. That’s what made this guy different. Also his duping of the cancer community, which was another pretty big thing to do. I was thrilled that the story unfolded the way it did because those people who were my sources, they were vindicated.

Lance plays fast and loose with the truth and that is significant in bringing about his downfall.

DW: A very unusual situation arose in 1996 when Lance was being treated for his cancer. He is in his hospital room and there are lots of people who had come to visit him at the same time including Betsy and Frankie Andreu. Frankie was a team mate of Lance’s, Betsy was his wife - they and Lance had been friends for three years. Two doctors walk into the room for their consultation and Lance says guys no need for you to go. So the doctors are asking Lance, when you were riding did you use any performance enhancing drugs? And Lance says yes, and he just reeled them off: testosterone, cortisone, anabolic steroids, EPO. That scene would haunt Lance Armstrong. It is a scene that he still won’t acknowledge happened.

Betsy’s life was torn apart through her drive to expose the truth about Lance’s use of EPO.

DW: I first came across Betsy at the end of 2002 or 2003. I got a message from a journalist friend of mine who said people have seen that you are making lots of enquiries about Lance Armstrong, well there is a woman who would like to speak to you and that was Betsy. I got in touch with Betsy and for the following ten years she became a fantastic source of inspiration. She was absolutely driven to see the truth come out. Her problem with the whole Lance story was that she wasn’t going to lie for him; she didn’t see why she should have to lie for him. Of course when she did that, Lance then had so much power in the sport that it adversely impacted on Frankie’s life because that cost him his place on the team. Frankie then tries to get jobs in management and he feels all the time that Lance is pulling strings behind his back to restrict his opportunities. Of course all that did was make Betsy more determined to get the truth out there and she was tireless. I think if Lance was doing this all over again he wouldn’t be picking a fight with Betsy Andreu because she was formidable.

Writing the book became a personal story. How did it feel to be portrayed on the big screen?

DW: It’s really surreal. All through this story I was clinging on to the Marge Simpson mantra that there is no shame in being a pariah! There were times when I felt like the outsider; the black sheep. To now have myself portrayed in a more favourable way is an incredible turnaround and it’s hugely flattering. But I don’t feel I deserve this anyway. I feel that the real heroes of this story were Betsy Andreu, Stephen Swart, Emma O’Reilly, Greg LeMond - the people who were my sources, and Susan Docherty who helped me get good information on Armstrong.

And what do you hope that the film of THE PROGRAM will bring to this ever unfolding story?

DW: I think we’re going to get a sense of Lance the winner, Lance the ruthless crusher of people that got in his way. It’s important that people see the character that lay at the core of what US Anti- Doping chief executive Travis Tygart said is the greatest doping conspiracy that we’ve ever seen. People must understand the nature of the guy who masterminded that.

ABOUT THE CAST

BEN FOSTER – Lance Armstrong Ben Foster will co-star alongside Chris Pine, Eric Bana, and Casey Affleck in Craig Gillespie’s The Finest Hours in early 2016. Beyond that, he will be seen starring alongside Dominic Cooper in Duncan Jones’ Warcraft and Comancheria, directed by David Mackenzie and also starring Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges.

Foster’s most recent credits include Peter Berg’s Lone Survivor in which he starred opposite Mark Wahlberg. Also in 2013 he starred in Ain’t Them Bodies Saints alongside Rooney Mara and Kill Your Darlings in which he co-starred with Daniel Radcliffe, which both premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

In 2014, Foster made his London stage debut in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire at the Young Vic Theatre. He starred alongside Gillian Anderson and Vanessa Kirby under the direction of Benedict Andrews. The production will make its US premiere Off Broadway at St. Ann’s Warehouse from in spring 2016. Previously, in spring 2013, Foster made his Broadway debut in the revival of Lyle Kessler’s Orphans opposite Alec Baldwin and Tom Sturridge. The production, directed by Dan Sullivan, received a Tony nomination.

In 2009, Foster starred opposite Woody Harrelson and Samantha Morton in Oren Moverman’s The Messenger. The film played in official selection at Sundance Film Festival as well as winning the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay and the Peace Film Award at Berlin Film Festival and the Grand Prix at the Deauville Film Festival, all in 2009. Foster reteamed with Moverman in 2011 to co-star in and produce, Rampart, which also stars Woody Harrelson. The film premiered at Toronto International Film Festival, the AFI and the London Film Festival.

In 2007, he appeared in James Mangold's 3:10 to Yuma. The cast received an SAG Ensemble nomination for their work in the film.

Foster's additional credits include Fernando Meirelles' 360, Baltasar Kormakur's Contraband, Braden King's Here, The Mechanic, Nick Cassavetes' Alpha Dog, X-Men 3: The Last Stand, 30 Days of Night, Hostage and Barry Levinson's Liberty Heights, which marked his film debut.

On the small screen, Foster shared the SAG Award for Best Ensemble Cast for his work in the 2003 season of HBO's critically acclaimed drama Six Feet Under, in which he portrayed Russell Corwin for three seasons. He was also a part of the Emmy nominated HBO telefilm The Laramie Project. He appeared in several episodes of the cult hit Freaks and Geeks and his lead performance in Showtime's Bang Bang You're Dead garnered him a Daytime Emmy award.

Foster currently resides in New York City.

CHRIS O’DOWD – David Walsh Chris O’Dowd has built an international reputation as a versatile film and TV actor, winning awards, critical acclaim and huge audience popularity in equal measure. In 2014 he added Broadway to his list of successes. His performance as Lennie in John Steinbeck’s OF MICE AND MEN opposite James Franco earned him a Tony nomination for ‘Best Performance by an Actor’ in a Leading Role; a Drama Desk Nomination for ‘Outstanding Actor in a Play and Theatre’ and a World Award for ‘Outstanding Broadway Debut Performance’. His demand as a screen actor means his last stage appearance was back in 2008 in the West End starring opposite Catherine Tate and

Francesa Anis in Anna Mackmin’s UNDER THE BLUE SKY at the Duke of York Theatre.

Chris first came to the British public’s attention starring as Roy in Channel 4’s cult comedy series The IT CROWD. He’s been a regular on the small screen ever since; from the critically acclaimed BBC series CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE in which he starred as William Wrackham, to writing, producing, directing and starring in Sky’s MOONE BOY his acclaimed semiautobiographical sitcom that finds him returning to his Irish childhood in 1990s Boyle. The show, in which he plays Sean Murphy, the imaginary friend of young boy Martin Moone won an Emmy for ‘Best Comedy’ in 2013, it was also nominated for ‘Best New Comedy Programme’ at The British Comedy Awards and won the IFTA for 'Best Entertainment Programme' in the same year. In 2014 MOONE BOY won the British Comedy Award for Best Sitcom, earned the IFTA for the second consecutive year and in 2015 followed up these with a nomination for 'Best Sitcom Comedy' at the BAFTA's. The series, which premiered on Sky One in the UK and Hulu in the U.S. In 2013 Chris played the leading role of 'Tom Chadwick' in Christopher Guest’s FAMILY TREE, which aired on HBO in the US and BBC2 in the UK. Chris also starred in Lena Dunham’s HBO series, GIRLS for two seasons.

Over the past few years Chris has carved out a hugely successful movie career. He was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award and won the Irish Film & TV Award for ‘Best Supporting Actor – Film’ for his role as Rhodes in hit movie BRIDESMAIDS. Produced by Judd Apatow the film received two Oscar nominations and was recognized by AFI as ‘Movie of the Year’ as well as being a huge box office success.

In Wayne Blair’s THE SAPPHIRES Chris starred as Dave, the manager of Australian aboriginal singing group The Sapphires as they entertained US troops in Vietnam. The film broke Australian box office records, garnered Chris the AACTA Award for ‘Best Lead Actor’ and received several awards and nominations for ‘Best Feature’. He was nominated for BAFTAs Rising Star Award in 2012.

Chris’s other movie credits include Judd Apatow’s THIS IS 40 opposite Paul Rudd; Jennifer Westfelt’s FRIENDS WITH KIDS alongside Jon Hamm and Kristen Wiig; Jay Roache’s DINNER FOR SCHMUCKS opposite Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell; Rob Letterman’s GULLIVER’S TRAVELS with Jack Black and Emily Blunt; Richard Curtis’ FOX, THE BOAT THAT ROCKED opposite Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Gareth Carrivick’s FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT TIME TRAVEL opposite Anna Faris.

Chris also starred in FESTIVAL which was nominated for two BAFTAs including ‘Best British Film’ and won him a BAFTA Scotland Award for ‘Best Actor in a Scottish Film’; John Michael McDonagh’s CALVARY opposite Brendan Gleeson; Marvel Production’s THOR: THE DARKWORLD and James Griffiths’ CUBAN FURY opposite Nick Frost and Rashida Jones. Most recently Chris was seen in the role of 'Brother Geraghty' in ST. VINCENT alongside Bill Murray and Melissa McCarthy. He also lent his voice to Chris Wedge’s recent animated blockbuster EPIC alongside Beyonce, Amanda Seyfried and Jason Sudeikis.

THE PROGRAM Stephen Frear's movie based on the book by Irish journalist David Walsh, "Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong", in which Chris plays David Walsh will be premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival 2015.

2015 saw Chris work with Tim Burton on MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN and is now scheduled to reunite with Christopher Guest on an upcoming film that Guest will write and direct.

Chris is from Roscommon, Ireland. He studied politics at Dublin University before training at LAMDA.

GUILLAUME CANET – Dr. Michele Ferrari Guillaume Canet is a French actor, director producer and scriptwriter. Canet made his film debut in the short film "Fils unique". In 1997, he appeared in the thriller film Barracuda for which he won the best actor award at the Festival Saint-Jean-de-Luz in 1999. The same year he was nominated for a César Award for his role as Vincent Mazet in the comedy film En plein coeur. He then traveled abroad to film Danny Boyle's The Beach.

In 2002, he wrote and directed his first feature film, Mon Idole, nominated for r Best Director at Cesar Awards. His second feature film, Tell No One, an adaptation of Harlan Coben's novel of the same name was released in 2006. Tell No One was the ninth top grossing French film of 2006 and went on to win four César awards, including a César Award for Best Director for Canet. 4 years later, his film Little White Lies was the biggest box office success in France (2010) with 5 millions viewers.

In parallel, Guillaume Canet continued his actor career and could be seen in very eclectic roles as in Love me if you dare (with Marion Cotillard) by Yann Samuell, Ensemble c’est tout by Claude Berri, Merry Christmas and Farewell by Christian Carion or Last Night (with Keira Knightley) by Massy Tadjedin

His american film Blood Ties was selected to be screened at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. In 2014, he starred in André Téchiné’s In the Name of My Daughter, presented at Cannes Film Festival, and in Next Time I’ll Aim for The Heart by Cédric Anger. In this last film he played a serial killer and was, again, nominated at Cesar Awards, for Best Actor

The Program by Stephen Frears, Jadotville by Richie Smyth, and Les Inséparables by Danièle Thompson, his upcoming projects as an actor, will be released in 2015/2016

JESSE PLEMONS – Floyd Landis Born in 1988 in Dallas, Texas, Jesse Plemons received an early start as an actor, making his debut at age three in a Coca Cola commercial. His Texas charm helped him land the role and would shape the early part of his career all the way to his breakout role in Friday Night Lights. Cast as Landry Clarke, Plemons was a fan favourite of the Emmy Award winning show that followed the Dillon Panthers, a fictional Texas high school football team.

Following the conclusion of Friday Night Lights, Plemons appeared in a number of films, including a role in the epic action film Battleship (2012) that was written specifically for him. Additionally, he was cast in the final season of the acclaimed show Breaking Bad (2008-2013). There, Plemons played Todd Alquist and was recognised by IGN as 2013’s best TV villain.

Plemons appeared opposite Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Paul Thomas Anderson’s critically lauded drama, The Master (2012). More recently, he had a supporting role in Tommy Lee Jones’ The Homesman as well as the HBO mini-•‐ series Olive Kitteridge and Black Mass, opposite Jonny Depp. He recently finished filming both Bridge of Spies, Steven Spielberg’s cold war drama, and the second season of the Golden Globe award-•‐ winning show Fargo. Plemons will also be seen in Doug Liman’s Mena opposite Tom Cruise.

Plemons resides in Austin, Texas and performs in the band Cowboy and Indian.

EDWARD HOGG – Frankie Andreu Edward Hogg trained at RADA and has experience across film, television and theatre. Hogg’s film credits to date include Mary Queen of Scots, Imagine and The Comedian. His forthcoming films include The Wachowskis’ Jupiter Ascending alongside Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum and Douglas Booth as well as Owen Harris’ Kill Your Friends.

Hogg has appeared in several Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre productions such as John Dove’s Measure For Measure and Tim Carroll’s production of The Tempest and in productions at London’s Young Vic including Pictures From an Exhibition, Our Country’s Good and Cressida. Other notable theatre credits include Rock ‘N Roll and Our Class at the National Theatre.

For television Hogg has starred in The Borgias, Dead Boss, Indian Summers and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. He has previously appeared in several television shows including Misfits, Dead Boss and Doctors. Hogg’s latest role is Beowulf, shooting in summer 2015 for ITV

LEE PACE – Bill Stapleton An accomplished and versatile performer, Lee Pace has established himself as a powerful leading man, consistently delivering compelling performances on film, television and stage.

He was most recently seen on the small screen in the second season of the AMC critically acclaimed series Halt and Catch Fire in which Pace stars, reprising his role as ‘Joe MacMillan’, a tech visionary during the rise of the personal computing boom of the 1980s.

Pace was also recently seen on the big screen reprising his role as the Elf King ‘Thranduil’ in the final instalment of Peter Jackson’s trilogy The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies where he appeared in the two prior “Hobbit” films. He was also seen as the intergalactic villain ‘Ronan the Accuser’ in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” The Marvel film was the highest grossing film of 2014 with over $700 million worldwide.

He also recently wrapped production in South Africa as the lead in the sci-fi thriller Revolt, written and directed by Joe Miale. Pace stars opposite Bérénice Marlohe, in the film, which follows the story of an American soldier and a French foreign aid worker who team up in Africa amid humankind’s last stand against a cataclysmic alien invasion.

On the small screen, Pace is most notable for his starring role in Bryan Fuller’s award-winning and critically-acclaimed series Pushing Daisies, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe and Emmy in the category of Outstanding Lead Actor. The dramedy television series aired on ABC for two seasons earning a dedicated and cult following fan base. He also recently guest-starred on season 3 of The Mindy Project as ‘Alex,’ Mindy’s ex-boyfriend from college.

Pace’s breakout role in the Sundance hit Soldier’s Girl earned him a Gotham Award, as well as his first nomination for a Golden Globe and an Independent Spirit Award. The Peabody Award-winning film followed the true story of a transgendered woman dating a U.S. soldier.

His other film credits include Doug McGrath’s Truman Capote memoir/biography Infamous opposite Toby Jones, Sandra Bullock and Daniel Craig; Robert De Niro’s CIA drama The Good Shepherd opposite Matt Damon; visionary director Tarsem Singh’s The Fall, which premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival; Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day opposite Amy Adams and Frances McDormand; the Tom Ford directorial debut A Single Man opposite Colin Firth and Julianne Moore;

Max Winkler’s Ceremony opposite Uma Thurman; Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln; and the nomadic vampire ‘Garrett’ in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.

For all his roles on screen, Pace maintains a connection to theatre. He starred in the limited run of the Off-Broadway production Small Tragedy which garnered him an ‘Outstanding Actor’ Lucille Lortel Award nomination as well as in the two-character play Guardians in which he was also nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award. Most recently, Pace returned to the stage in the Tony-nominated Broadway Revival production of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart.

Born in Oklahoma, Pace began his acting career at the Alley Theatre in Houston before training at the Juilliard School. As a member of Group 30 in Juilliard’s Drama Division, Pace starred in multiple school productions of Romeo & Juliet, Richard III and Julius Caesar.

DENIS MÉNOCHET – Johan Bruyneel French film actor Denis Ménochet is known to international audiences for his powerful performance opposite Christoph Waltz in the opening scene of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. His subsequent film credits include Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, Melanie Laurent’s The Adopted, for which he received the Lumière Award for Most Promising Actor (2011), Francois Ozon’s In The House and Rebecca Zlotowski’s Grand Central.

In 2015 he starred the Canal + TV show ‘Spotless’ and also played in Stephen Frears' last movie about Lance Armstrong in which he plays the manager of the cyclist.

DUSTIN HOFFMAN – Bob Hamman A two-time Academy Award winner and seven-time nominee whose arrival in Hollywood helped usher in a new and revitalized approach to filmmaking, Dustin Hoffman continues to add singular performances to a career rich with characters that have obliterated the line previously dividing the archetypes of character actor and leading man.

Hoffman caught the world's attention for his role as Benjamin Braddock in Mike Nichol's Academy® Award nominated film, The Graduate. Since then, he has been nominated for six more Academy® Awards for diverse films such as Midnight Cowboy, Lenny, Tootsie (a film he also produced through his company, Punch Productions), and Wag the Dog. Hoffman won the Oscar® in 1979 for his role in Kramer Vs. Kramer and again in 1988 for Rain Man. In 1997, he was awarded the Golden Globe's esteemed Cecil B. DeMille Award.

Hoffman made his directorial debut with the feature film, Quartet starring Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins, Michael Gambon and Sheridan Smith. The film was recognized by the National Board of Review for being one of the Top Ten Independent Films in 2012. Hoffman was also awarded the Breakthrough Director Award by the Hollywood Film Awards. Additionally, Maggie Smith was nominated for a Golden Globe and Billy Connolly was nominated for a British Independent Film Award on behalf of the film.

Hoffman will next be seen in Boychoir and most recently appeared in Jon Favreau’s Chef and, for television, Dearblah Walsh’s Esio Trot opposite Judi Dench.

In 2010, Hoffman starred opposite Paul Giamatti in Barney's Version, directed by Richard J. Lewis. The film premiered at the 2010 Venice Film Festival. Hoffman also reprised his role as Bernie Focker in Little Fockers starring opposite Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro and Barbara Streisand.

Hoffman starred in Last Chance Harvey, written and directed by Joel Hopkins, and co-starring Emma Thompson. He received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical category for his role.

Hoffman lent his voice to the box office hit Kung Fu Panda. The film was nominated for an Academy® Award for Animated Feature Film of the Year and Hoffman received the Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production. He voiced the character of Shifu in Kung Fu Panda 2 and will also lend his voice for the forthcoming Kung Fu Panda 3.

Other film credits include: The Tale of Despereaux, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Stranger Than Fiction, Perfume, Meet the Fockers, Finding Neverland, I Heart Huckabee's, The Lost City, Racing Stripes, Runaway Jury, Little Big Man, Straw Dogs, Papillon, All the President's Men, Marathon Man, Straight Time, Agatha, Ishtar, Dick Tracy, Billy Bathgate, Mad City, Hero, Sleepers, Sphere, American Buffalo, Hook and Outbreak.

On television, Hoffman starred in Michael Mann's and David Milch’s acclaimed horseracing drama, Luck for HBO.

On stage, Hoffman has had an equally impressive career. His first stage role was in the Sarah Lawrence College production of Gertrude Stein's Yes is for a Very Young Man. This performance led to several roles Off Broadway, such as Journey of the Fifth Horse, for which he won the Obie, and Eh?, for which he won the Drama Desk Award for Best Actor. His success on stage caught the attention of Mike Nichols, who cast him in The Graduate. In 1969, Hoffman made his Broadway debut in Murray Schisgal's Jimmy Shine. In 1974, Hoffman made his Broadway directorial debut with Schisgal's All Over Town. In 1984, Hoffman garnered a Drama Desk Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Willy Loman in the Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman which he also produced. In addition to starring in the Broadway production, a special presentation aired on television and Hoffman won the Emmy Award. Additionally, Hoffman received a Tony Award Nomination for his role as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice which he reprised from his long run on the London Stage.

As a producer, Hoffman produced Tony Goldwyn's feature film A Walk on the Moon starring Diane Lane, Viggo Mortensen, Liev Schreiber and Anna Paquin. He executive produced The Devil's Arithmetic which won two Emmy Awards.

Hoffman was born in Los Angeles and attended Santa Monica Community College. He later studied at the Pasadena Playhouse before moving to New York to study with Lee Strasberg.

Hoffman serves as the chair of the Artistic Advisory Board along with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Plácido Domingo for the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage Theater, in 2008. This intimate 499-seat state- of-the-art theater provides a much-needed performance facility for Santa Monica College and the surrounding community.

Hoffman was honored at the 2012 Kennedy Center Honors. Hoffman was also awarded the Honorary César Medal at the 2009 César Awards.

ABOUT THE CREW STEPHEN FREARS – Director Unanimously regarded as one of Britain's finest directors, Stephen Frears has always embraced a wide variety of styles, themes and genres. He made his name in TV drama, working almost exclusively for the small screen in the first 15 years of his career. In the mid 1980s he turned to the

34 cinema, shooting The Hit (1984) starring Terence Stamp, John Hurt and Tim Roth. The following year he made My Beautiful Laundrette for Channel 4, which crossed over to big screen audiences and altered the course of his career. After directing its companion piece Sammy And Rosie Get Laid and the Joe Orton biopic Prick Up Your Ears, he began working in Hollywood, with Dangerous Liaisons and The Grifters (for which he was Oscar®-nominated) among his most notable titles.

Returning closer to home, he directed The Snapper and The Van, two Irish films based on Roddy Doyle stories and after a second spell of making American films (The Hi-Lo Country and High Fidelity) based himself largely in Britain. Frears showed his versatility with two vastly different movies — Dirty Pretty Things, a realistic account of immigrant life in London, and Mrs. Henderson Presents, a nostalgic backstage comedy-drama. For his 2006 film The Queen he was again nominated for an Oscar®. His subsequent films include Cheri, Tamara Drewe, Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight and Philomena, starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, which won one BAFTA, and was nominated for three others, along with three Golden Globe and four Oscar® nominations. Frears has just finished filming Florence Foster Jenkins with Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant.

TIM BEVAN & ERIC FELLNER - Producers Tim Bevan is Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of Working Title Films, one of the world’s leading film companies, which he formed in 1984 and then partnered with Co-chairman Eric Fellner in 1992. Working Title has made over 100 films that have grossed over $6 billion worldwide. Their films have won 11 Academy Awards® (for James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything, Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables, Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina, Tim Robbins’ Dead Man Walking; Joel and Ethan Coen’s Fargo; Shekhar Kapur’s Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age; and Joe Wright’s Atonement) and 37 BAFTA Awards and prestigious prizes at the Cannes and Berlin International Film Festivals.

In 2013 Bevan and Fellner were awarded the Producers Guild of America's David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures, the PGA's highest honour for motion picture producers. They have been accorded two of the highest film awards given to British filmmakers: the Michael Balcon Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema at the Orange British Academy Film [BAFTA] Awards and the Alexander Walker Film Award at the Evening Standard British Film Awards. They have also both been honoured with CBEs (Commanders of the British Empire).

The company’s commercial and critical hits include The Interpreter, About a Boy, Notting Hill, Elizabeth, Fargo, Dead Man Walking, Bean, High Fidelity, Johnny English, Billy Elliot, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Love Actually, Shaun of the Dead, Pride & Prejudice, Nanny McPhee, United 93, Mr. Bean’s Holiday, Hot Fuzz, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Burn After Reading, Frost/Nixon, Atonement, Senna, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Anna Karenina, Les Misérables, I Give It A Year and most recently About Time, Rush, Two Faces of January, Trash and The Theory of Everything.

Working Title’s upcoming releases include Baltasar Kormákur’s Everest starring Jason Clark, Jake Gyllenhaal and Josh Brolin, Brian Helgeland’s Legend starring Tom Hardy and Emily Browning, Stephen Frears’ The Program, Max Joseph’s We Are Your Friends starring Zac Efron and Emily Ratajkowski, Hail Caesar! their eighth film with Joel and Ethan Coen, starring George Clooney, Josh Brolin and Channing Tatum, Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl, starring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander and Louis Leterrier’s Grimsby starring Sacha Baron Cohen, Rebel Wilson, Isla Fisher and Mark Strong.

TRACEY SEAWARD – Producer This is Tracey Seaward’s seventh collaboration with Stephen Frears, following their previous work together on the highly acclaimed Philomena. Starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, Philomena won 35 a BAFTA, and was nominated for three others, along with three Golden Globe and four Oscar® nominations. Seaward also produced Dirty Pretty Things, Chéri, Tamara Drewe and The Queen for which she won a BAFTA and an Oscar® nominations. Her last assignment before Philomena was unique and memorable: producing Danny Boyle’s Isles of Wonder, the epic opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Seaward has worked with many distinguished directors including David Cronenberg (Eastern Promises), Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener), Steven Spielberg (War Horse), Danny Boyle (Millions) and Neil Jordan (The Good Thief). Recent projects include Michael Grandage's debut film Genius, with an all-star cast including Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Guy Pearce and Dominic West, as well as Stephen Frears’ latest project, Florence Foster Jenkins starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant.

KATE SOLOMON – Producer Kate Solomon began her career in documentaries. In 2005 she moved into features working for the next six years as a producer with director Paul Greengrass on films including the Oscar® nominated United 93 and Green Zone starring Matt Damon. Since 2011 she has been writing and producing independently, most recently as an executive producer on Brian Helgeland’s Legend starring Tom Hardy.

JOHN HODGE – Screenwriter John Hodge was born in Glasgow. He studied medicine before writing the screenplay for 1994’s Shallow Grave, directed by Danny Boyle and produced by Andrew Macdonald. Hodge continued the collaboration with Boyle and Macdonald on Trainspotting (1996), for which he won the best adapted screenplay BAFTA, A Life Less Ordinary (1997) and The Beach (2000). Other credits include The Final Curtain (2002), The Seeker: Dark is Rising (2007) and The Sweeney, co-written with Nick Love (2012). Hodge worked once again with Danny Boyle on Trance (co-written with Joe Aherne) in 2013.

Hodge’s first work for the stage, Collaborators, was performed at London’s National Theatre in 2011 and won the 2012 Olivier Award for Best New Play.

DAVID WALSH – Author David Walsh has been chief sportswriter with the Sunday Times since 2001. He is a four-time Irish Sportswriter of the Year and a four-time UK Sportswriter of the Year. In 2012 he was named UK Journalist of the Year for his campaign to uncover the truth in the Lance Armstrong story. He is co-author of L.A. Confidential: The Secrets of Lance Armstrong [2004] and author of From Lance to Landis: Inside the American Doping Controversy at the Tour de France [2007]. Most recently Walsh wrote Seven Deadly Sins, detailing his 13-year investigation into Armstrong, which has been the inspiration for the Working Title film The Program, starring Ben Foster, Chris O'Dowd, Guillaume Canet and Dustin Hoffman.

DANNY COHEN – Cinematographer Cinematographer Danny Cohen has worked with a variety of directors including Lenny Abrahamson, Richard Curtis, Rupert Goold, Tom Hooper, Shane Meadows, Stephen Poliakoff and Dominic Savage on a number of feature films and television dramas.

A member of the British Society of Cinematographers since 2008, Danny’s credits include This Is England, This is England 1986, This is England 1988, and Dead Man’s Shoes directed by Shane Meadows; Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech, Les Miserables, John Adams and, most recently, The Danish Girl; Lenny Abrahamson’s Room; Oliver Parker’s Johnny English Reborn; Richard II directed by Rupert Goold for the BBC; Dominic Savage’s Dive; Adrian Shergold’s Pierrepoint; Steven Poliakoff’s

Glorious 39 and A Real Summer; and Richard Curtis’ The Boat That Rocked. Danny was nominated for a “Best Cinematography” BAFTA for lighting Les Miserables, an Oscar and a BAFTA for his work on feature film The King’s Speech, and was also nominated for the BAFTA for “Best Photography and Lighting: Fiction/Entertainment” for his work on Longford. He is has just completed shooting Florence Foster Jenkins for Stephen Frears.

ALAN MACDONALD – Production Designer Alan Macdonald is known for his production design work on The Queen (2006), which won him nominations from the Art Directors Guild and the British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs). For the Rajasthan-set The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012), MacDonald won a second nomination from the Art Directors Guild. He has recently finished his design for Stephen Frears’ upcoming film Florence Foster Jenkins.

In 2013, Macdonald designed the Academy Award® nominated Philomena and in 2014 designed the sets for John Carney’s Sing Street, set in Dublin in the 1980s. Other credits include Love Is The Devil, the film portrait of artist Francis Bacon, The Jacket and The Edge Of Love all directed by John Maybury, and Kinky Boots.

Macdonald’s television credits include his design for Henry V (2012), directed by Thea Sharrock for the BBC as part of The Hollow Crown series, and Man to Man (1992), the one-woman play starring Tilda Swinton and directed by John Maybury. Macdonald was production designer for Kevin Spacey’s one-man play Darrow, directed by Thea Sharrock at the Old Vic Theatre in London in 2014/2015.

Macdonald has also designed for contemporary dance shows, including works for the Ballet Rambert, Sydney Dance Company and Jean Abreu Dance. In addition he has designed the stage sets for international pop tours, notably four world tours for Kylie Minogue.

VALERIO BONELLI - Editor Valerio Bonelli is a film editor based in London who has worked on feature films and television productions. In 2013 Bonelli started his collaboration with Stephen Frears for whom he cut the Oscar® nominated Philomena. In summer 2015, he started cutting Florence Foster Jenkins, again directed by Frears and starring Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant.

Bonelli is co-editor on the forthcoming Ridley Scott film The Martian with Matt Damon. Other notable editing partnerships are with writer and director Steven Knight, with writers and directors Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, with director Jordan Scott and with director Peter Webber.

Bonelli graduated from the National Film and Television School in 2001. At the start of his career Bonelli assisted Oscar® winner film editor Pietro Scalia on several Ridley Scott films, namely Gladiator, Hannibal and Black Hawk Down and was associate editor on Rob Marshall's Memoirs of a Geisha.

Bonelli has also edited several award-winning theatrical and television documentary films. In 2011 he produced and edited the feature documentary Without Gorky directed by Cosima Spender. In 2014 the collaboration with Cosima Spender continued on the feature documentary Palio for which Bonelli won Best Documentary Editing at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival.

ALEX HEFFES - Composer Alex Heffes, who was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2013, first came to international prominence with his scores to Kevin Macdonald’s Academy Award®-winning films The Last King of Scotland and

One Day in September as well as State of Play, Touching the Void amongst others. Since then Heffes has worked with directors such as Justin Chadwick on Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination, Peter Webber on Emperor, Catherine Hardwicke on Red Riding Hood, Tim Burton for Sweeney Todd, for which he contributed additional arrangements to Sondheim’s show, Mikael Hafstrom and many others.

Heffes received his first BAFTA nomination for the HBO drama Tsunami: The Aftermath and has gone on to score across a wide variety of genres including Inside Job (the second Academy Award®- winning feature documentary he had scored, Dear Frankie, What We Did On Our Holiday, The Parole Officer, The Rite and Escape Plan, starring Silvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Upcoming work includes Bastille Day starring Idris Elba and JJ Abrams’ miniseries 11/22/63. Heffe’s scores have been nominated for Golden Globe, BAFTA, Ivor Novello, European Film Academy, NAACP, Black Reel and ASCAP awards. In 2011 he was awarded discovery of the year by the World Soundtrack Academy and in 2012 was awarded best film score of the year at the Ivor Novello Awards in London.

JANE PETRIE - Costume Designer Jane Petrie has been working as a costume designer for over 15 years. Working on a number of high profile projects, Petrie has successfully established herself in the industry.

Her credits include the acclaimed television series Top Boy directed by Yann Demange, Black Mirror directed by Otto Bathurst and Euros Lynn and the Sky Atlantic series Falcon directed by Pete Travis and Gabriel Range.

Patrie’s film credits include John Crowley’s Is Anybody There?, Daniel Barber’s Harry Brown, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s 28 Weeks Later and Duncan Jones’ Moon. Recently Petrie worked with Kevin MacDonald on How I Live Now and collaborated with acclaimed theatre director Rufus Norris on his feature debut Broken which won the BIFA for Best British Film in 2012. Petrie also collaborated with Andrea Arnold on Fish Tank starring Michael Fassbender and teamed up again with Yann Demange on ‘71 which premiered to critical acclaim at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival.

Petrie has most recently designed for Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette starring Carey Mulligan and Genius, Michael Grandage’s first feature, starring Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Laura Linney. She is currently designing the costumes for David Michod’s latest project War Machine starring Brad Pitt.

DAVID MILLAR – Cycling Consultant David Millar was for 18 years a professional road-racing cyclist, most recently with Team Garmin- Sharp. He is the only British cyclist to have worn all Tour de France jerseys and one of only six to have worn the yellow jersey. A stage winner in all three Grand Tours he has also worn the leader’s jersey at the Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a Espana. He has been the Captain of Team GB both for the World Championships and the Olympics. Millar’s critically acclaimed memoir Racing Through the Dark, was shortlisted for both the 2011 William Hill Sports Book of the Year and the British Sports Book Awards. Following his retirement from professional racing at the end of 2014, 2015 will see Millar’s second book published, The Racer, and also the launch of his new brand. His only current link with the racing world is TV commentary for ITV.

CREDITS

STUDIOCANAL Presents

in association with ANTON CAPITAL ENTERTAINMENT

and AMAZON PRIME INSTANT VIDEO

A WORKING TITLE Production

A STEPHEN FREARS Film

BEN FOSTER CHRIS O’DOWD GUILLAUME CANET JESSE PLEMONS LEE PACE DENIS MENOCHET EDWARD HOGG DUSTIN HOFFMAN

Directed By STEPHEN FREARS Produced By TIM BEVAN ERIC FELLNER TRACEY SEAWARD KATE SOLOMON Screenplay By JOHN HODGE Inspired by the book ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ by DAVID WALSH

Executive Producers AMELIA GRANGER LIZA CHASIN OLIVIER COURSON RON HALPERN Director of Photography DANNY COHEN BSC Production Designer ALAN MACDONALD Editor VALERIO BONELLI Music By ALEX HEFFES Costume Designer JANE PETRIE Hair and Make-Up Designer FELICITY BOWRING Casting By LEO DAVIS LISSY HOLM KATHLEEN CHOPIN First Assistant Director BARRIE McCULLOCH Unit Production Manager SAM KNOX-JOHNSTON CAST Lance Armstrong BEN FOSTER David Walsh CHRIS O’DOWD Dr. Ferrari GUILLAUME CANET Floyd Landis JESSE PLEMONS Bill Stapleton LEE PACE Johan Bruyneel DENIS MENOCHET Frankie Andreu EDWARD HOGG Bob Hamman DUSTIN HOFFMAN Betsy Andreu ELAINE CASSIDY Emma O'Reilly LAURA DONNELLY Sunday Times Editor PETER WIGHT Charles Pelkey NATHAN WILEY John Wilcockson CHRIS LARKIN Rupert Guinness MARK LITTLE Lance's Doctor MICHAEL G. WILSON Tony SID PHOENIX Rich JOSH O’CONNOR Stephen Swart SAM HOARE Wayne JAMES HARKNESS Conference Doctor SASKIA REEVES Kristin CHLOE HAYWARD Jeffrey Tillotson ADAM LEFEVRE Richard Faulkner BRENT LANGDON Tailwind Executive J.D. EVERMORE Christophe Bassons NICOLAS ROBIN John Lelangue JULIEN VIALON Young Hospital Doctor CHIKÉ OKONKWO Sunday Times Lawyer DANIEL STEWART Race Official YVES AUBERT Floyd Landis' Father PAUL KELLEHER Jean-Michel Rouet PHILIPPE SMOLIKOWSKI

Alberto Contador LUCIEN GUIGNARD Travis Tygart JOHN SCHWAB UCI Official DAVID BERTRAND U.S. Sports Journalist CHRISTY MEYER Journalist (Landis' Conference) SEBASTIAN GONZALEZ Barrister SIMON PAISLEY DAY Judge GEOFFREY FRESHWATER Jack JOSEPH CAIRNS Cycling Woman SUSAN SNYDER Livestrong PAKARI KLEIV Liège Journalist NIKOS POURSANIDIS Children's Ward Nurse MARIA TERESA CREASEY Nurse in Corridor SHELLIA KENNEDY Pharmacist ROSA BURSZTEIN Chris Hamman ALEX DOBRENKO Woman in Bookshop LESA THURMAN Team Owner DENTON BLANE EVERETT Tailwind Executive 2 TODD TERRY Tailwind Executive 3 GREG DORCHAK TV Newsreader IAN KNAUER Motoman GARY WEEKES French Waitress MAUD KLESZCZ LUSZCZYNSKI Peloton Leader ANDREAS KLIER Peloton THOMAS DEKKER LIAM HOLOHAN YANTO BARKER COLTON JARISCH JOAN HORRACH HUGH WILSON DIRK BELLEMAKERS KRISTIAN HOUSE SERVAIS KNAVEN KEVIN HULSMANS Additional Cyclists CHAMBÉRY CYCLISME FORMATION Stunt Coordinators GARETH MILNE NRINDER DHUDWAR JEFF SCHWAN Stunt Performers ROB JARMAN GARY CONNERY YAN DRON Additional Stunts ZACH DUAHME IMMANUEL SALAS CREW Cycling Consultant DAVID MILLAR Production Sound Mixer PETER LINDSAY, AMPS Post Production Supervisor TANIA BLUNDEN Archive Editor KARENJIT SAHOTA

Financial Controller LOUISE O'MALLEY Post Production Accountant TARN HARPER Music Supervisor KAREN ELLIOTT for HOTHOUSE MUSIC FOR WORKING TITLE FILMS Chief Operating Officer ANGELA MORRISON Executive in Charge of Production MICHELLE WRIGHT Production Executive SARAH-JANE ROBINSON Head of Business & Legal Affairs SHEERAZ SHAH Financial Controller TIM EASTHILL Development Executive HARRIET SPENCER Development Assistant TILLY COULSON Production Supervisor JACK SIDEY Legal Advisor, Business & Legal Affairs BEATRICE GIBSON Assistant To Tim Bevan VICTORIA ENDACOTT Assistant To Eric Fellner GEORGIA POWNALL FOR STUDIOCANAL Chief Executive Officer UK DANNY PERKINS Head of UK Production JENNY BORGARS Chief Operating Officer UK ROBB SMITH Head of UK Development DAN MACRAE Head of UK Publicity & Corporate SUZANNE NOBLE Communications Head of UK Marketing HUGH SPEARING Head of Physical Production SANDRINE LEGRAND Head of Business & Legal Affairs VANESSA SAUNOI

“Blitzkrieg Bop” (Joey Ramone, DeDe Ramone, Johnny Ramone, Tommy Ramone) Performed by The Ramones Courtesy of Warner Music UK Ltd

“Mr. Pharmacist” (Jeff Nowlen) Performed by The Fall Courtesy of Beggars Banquet Records Ltd By Arrangement with Beggars Group Media Ltd

“Spread Your Love” (Robert L Been, Peter B Hayes,

Nicholas Jago) Performed by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Courtesy of Capitol Records Inc. Under licence from Universal Music Operations Ltd

“Mrs. Robinson” (Paul Simon) Performed by The Lemonheads Courtesy of Warner Music UK Ltd

“Movin’ On Up” (Bobby Gillespie, Andrew Innes, Robert Young) Performed by Primal Scream Courtesy of Warner Bros. Records By arrangement with Warner Music Group Video Game Licensing And Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd

“No Surprises” (Colin Greenwood, Jonathan Greenwood, Edward O'Brien, Philip Sellway, Thomas Yorke) Performed by Radiohead Courtesy of Warner Music UK Ltd

“Everybody Knows” (Leonard Cohen, Sharon Robinson) Performed by Leonard Cohen Courtesy of Sony Music

Entertainment Canada

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Deborah Harpur - Movie Mogul Dr. Nick Plowman, Dr. David Petersen, Dr. Babar Vaqas Edilberto Junior Pangilinan Greg LeMond Guillaume Kleszcz Jane Haberlin Jenne Casarotto John Wilcockson Julian Barnes Kathy LeMond Lolly Louise Donald – Garmin Sharp Mairie de Bourg d’Oisans - Michel Zilo Mairie de Clavans Haut Oisans Mairie de La Grave - La Meije Mairie du Fresney d’Oisans Mairie et Office de tourisme de l’Alpe d’Huez – Messieurs Hurth et Pugin Maison Communale de Bouillon (Belgique), Monsieur le Bourgmestre André Defat Maison Communale de Couvin (Belgique), Monsieur le Bourgmestre Raymond Douniaux Messieurs Rabat et Janon, Conseil Général de l’isère Monsieur Benoît Hure, Sénateur Président du Conseil Général des Ardennes Monsieur Philippe Baudrin, Maire de Maing Monsieur Régis, Conseil Général de des Hautes Alpes Monsieur Sylvain Buhot, Maire de Hierges Paul Smith Richard Williams Rupert Guinness Sinead Moran – Arri Skratch Labs Stephen Swart Susan Kirr The Texas Film Commission Travis Tygart Twickenham Film Studios & Maria Walker