The Program (2015 film)


The Program is a 2015 biographical drama film about Lance Armstrong directed by Stephen Frears, starring Ben Foster as Armstrong and Chris O'Dowd as journalist David Walsh.
The film is based on Walsh's 2012 book . It premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival on 14 September 2015 and was theatrically released in France on 16 September and the United Kingdom on 14 October.

Cast

Development

Director Stephen Frears had the idea to make a film about Lance Armstrong after reading a review of Tyler Hamilton's book, The Secret Race. Unable to acquire the rights for Hamilton's book, he instead settled on Walsh's . Frears then turned to screenwriter John Hodge to write the script, partly because of Hodge's experience as a doctor.
Hodge has said that he primarily based his screenplay on Seven Deadly Sins, in addition to other journalism and affidavits from cyclists. Hodge says he ruled out using Armstrong's own accounts of his behavior during this period, and that scenes shown from Armstrong's perspective are fiction.

Casting

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

Filming

began in October 2013.

Reception

Box office

The Program grossed $3.3 million worldwide. It was released for U.S. rental on DirecTV on 19 February 2016, with a theater release date on 18 March 2016.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 61%, based on 105 reviews, with an average rating of 6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Ben Foster's impressive efforts to channel Lance Armstrong are often enough to power The Program past director Stephen Frears' frustrating unwillingness to delve deeper into its real-life story." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 53 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".