HBO show or mini-series about Lance/cycle-doping?

[Ninety5rpm]

After watching the pilot of HBO's new series about 1920's gangersterism during Prohibition, Boardwalk Empire, I thought they could make a future show about Armstrong. How about, "Peloton Empire"?

The parallels are rich. In Boardwalk Steve Buscemi's character is the corrupt city treasurer beloved by naive citizens who think his support for prohibition is genuine. Well, his support is genuine, but not because he's against alcohol drinking like they are, but because he can profit from it because it's legally prohibited...

Man, the whole inside story of doping in cycling could make for a killer mini-series.

 

[flicker]

After watching the pilot of HBO's new series about 1920's gangersterism during Prohibition, Boardwalk Empire, I thought they could make a future show about Armstrong. How about, "Peloton Empire"?

The parallels are rich. In Boardwalk Steve Buscemi's character is the corrupt city treasurer beloved by naive citizens who think his support for prohibition is genuine. Well, his support is genuine, but not because he's against alcohol drinking like they are, but because he can profit from it because it's legally prohibited...

Man, the whole inside story of doping in cycling could make for a killer mini-series.

Maybe in a few years. Let's not get ahead of ourselves eh? A lot of what has been said is opinion.

 

[NashbarShorts]

In the miniseries, would the Olsen twins play themselves??

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Never going to happen. Remember, he's friends with a lot of Hollywood elite types, most of whom view him with blinders on and swallow the Public Strategies PR whole. The only way something like this would happen is if he goes to prison and the entertainment industry thinks they can make cash from his story without his consent. But even then, it would be a downer of a movie, and filming the somewhat obscure (to the masses) sport of cycling would not be easy nor cheap to do (hence, few bicycling movies).

 

[flicker]

Never going to happen. Remember, he's friends with a lot of Hollywood elite types, most of whom view him with blinders on and swallow the Public Strategies PR whole. The only way something like this would happen is if he goes to prison and the entertainment industry thinks they can make cash from his story without his consent. But even then, it would be a downer of a movie, and filming the somewhat obscure (to the masses) sport of cycling would not be easy nor cheap to do (hence, few bicycling movies).

+ I do not think to many people would care to see a bummer like that movie.

 

[goggalor]

In the miniseries, would the Olsen twins play themselves??

They'd play each other.

 

[JMBeaushrimp]

I have to agree with Alpe - never going to happen.

Unfortunately this sad little man has created an empire of devotees. You'd have better luck doing a somewhat disparaging doc on Jesus.

Oh, wait a minute... Someone did that one...

 

[kurtinsc]

Would there really be any interest in a series like that?

Let's face it... chasing down a breakaway and making a "zip the lips" gesture doens't compare to favorably with gunning down a room full of people in a gangster movie in terms of entertainment.

What would the dramatic scenes be? Lance banging an Olsen twin? Lance getting an injection in his behind? A bus full of actors pretending to be cyclists getting blood transfusions?

I like cycling... but I'm not sure I'd have much viewing interest in that.

 

[JMBeaushrimp]

Would there really be any interest in a series like that?

Let's face it... chasing down a breakaway and making a "zip the lips" gesture doens't compare to favorably with gunning down a room full of people in a gangster movie in terms of entertainment.

What would the dramatic scenes be? Lance banging an Olsen twin? Lance getting an injection in his behind? A bus full of actors pretending to be cyclists getting blood transfusions?

I like cycling... but I'm not sure I'd have much viewing interest in that.

Perhaps someone creating an empire based upon themselves, and bilking millions of dollars from people who don't know what's going on based on the idea that he's actually doing something for cancer and trying to keep the sport clean?

Sounds like a good theme to me.

Not that I think it'll happen, just calling out a troll...

 

[Ninety5rpm]

Would there really be any interest in a series like that?

Let's face it... chasing down a breakaway and making a "zip the lips" gesture doens't compare to favorably with gunning down a room full of people in a gangster movie in terms of entertainment.

What would the dramatic scenes be? Lance banging an Olsen twin? Lance getting an injection in his behind? A bus full of actors pretending to be cyclists getting blood transfusions?

I like cycling... but I'm not sure I'd have much viewing interest in that.

What makes compelling drama compelling is the compelling drama, not "dramatic" scenes.

If cycling is nothing else, it's dramatic, and this doping underworld omerta stuff is all that much more so.

There are lots of ways to do it. Once is to do the public side in Hollywood grandiose color, and then show "what's really happening" behind the scenes in black & white or documentary style. In fact, it could be a docudrama, in which you alternate between actual footage of Lance racing and announcing how clean he is in filmed conferences, and then show him walk off the stage, zip to the hotel and attach an IV.

The idea is to demonstrate how different the "front" is that is presented to the public from the actual reality.

I don't think it really has to be depressing. It's a classic and very human story, really. The desperation to be a champion, etc.

I agree it's too soon, but I think it could happen.

 

[MacRoadie]

Unfortunately, HBO has already used "Oz" .

Would be perfect.

Bruyneel = The Great Oz, hiding behind the curtain.
Armstrong = Dorothy, the naive farmgirl from Kansas (right next door to Texas) fighting evil monkeys (AKA "Surrender Monkeys") in a far-off land (France).
Ekimov = The Cowardly Lion. Won't throw a punch but will spit on you like a little girl.
Andreas Kloden = The Tin Man (no heart to win a race on his own, so happy to be Armstrong's whipping boy).
Allen Lim = The Scarecrow (who'd have stayed at Garmin if "he only had a brain")
Any of the 20 blondes in Armstrong's life = Glinda, The Good Witch
Levi = Toto (but played as a Chihuahua)

Betsy = The Wicked Witch of the West (naturally)

 

[lean mean &green]

HBO already has a very amusing sports based dramedy, Eastbound and Down. I also doubt if a character based on LA could even top the crasssness of Kenny Powers. i feel guilty laughing at it but Eastbound has quickly become a fave.