Larry Horricks/Studio Canal FilmsBen Foster has the lead—and the yellow jersey.
The first photo has surfaced of the 32-year-old actor playing Lance Armstrong in director Stephen Frears' upcoming untitled biopic on the disgraced cyclist.
And if appearance is anything to go on, we'd say Foster's portrayal looks to have nailed Armstrong—from mirroring the road racer's ultra-thin angular face and preternatural muscular body to capturing his indomitable will to win.
The shot is from a point in the film when the cancer survivor is powering his way through the Tour de France and massive crowds gather to cheer him to victory.
Of course, Armstrong went on to grab a record seven Tour de France titles only to have all of them stripped after he admitted in January, 2013 to years of doping and running an extremely sophisticated program to evade being caught using performance-enhancing drugs by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Lance's legacy has prompted mixed feelings however. Despite his lying, cheating and constant bullying of his critics, Armstrong helped raise millions for cancer awareness through his charity, LiveStrong.
Costarring with Foster in the StudioCanal-produced flick is Bridesmaids' Chris O'Dowd, as Irish sports journalist David Walsh whom Armstrong dubbed the "Little Troll" for his investigations that helped expose the doping. Rounding out the cast is Breaking Bad star Jesse Piemons and French actor Guillaume Canet.
Foster's stock has been rising steadily in Hollywood over the past decade. After early roles in Freaks and Geeks, Boston Public and Six Feet Under, the thesp has since made waves on the big screen in such films as 3:10 to Yuma, The Messenger, Rampart and more recently Kill Your Darlings playing beat poet William S. Burroughs. He also notably replaced Shia LaBeouf in the Broadway revival of Orphans opposite Alec Baldwin.
Frears' movie will have to compete with several other projects on the cyclist. Aside from Alex Gibney's documentary, The Armstrong Lie, hitting theaters on Nov. 8, J.J. Abrams is supposedly planning a film about Armstrong with Bradley Cooper attached.