Here's the backstory of the documentary.
Frank Marshall, who is a huge producer in Hollywood, was a fan of Armstrong. He was contacted by Armstrong's posse about making a movie. He went and took the rights to Matt Tolmach who was President at Sony Pictures at the time and who is a huge cyclist.
Tolmach bought the rights to Armstrong's story and development started. Matt Damon, Toby Maguire, Jake Gylenhaal and others were considered for the main part. Some of them took up biking, bought 16K rigs and got dropped like horse poo.
It became clear to Marshall/Tolmach that it was difficult to develop a film based on a person who was still alive and active. Then he retired and it project kinda did, too.
Marshall was a huge lanceboy who never really believed the allegations, but certainly was fully aware of them. Tolmach, on the other hand, is a cyclist who, though infatuated with Armstrong (and, as is usual in his business, with celebrities in general), had doubts. In fact, most people who know him would probably say, he knew deep inside, but chose to overlook it, because he knew that audiences wanted the hero story. He also liked being friends with Armstrong, liked riding in team cars during races, liked going to training camps.
Both, Marshall and Tolmach were often guests at the TdF, TdC, TdG etc. They went to fundraisers for Livestrong as well.
When Armstrong told the producers he was going to try a comeback they thought it would make a good documentary. Armstrong thought so, too. They went after and got Alex Gibney as the director. Gibney really knew nothing about cycling. That said, the idea was to make a uplifting, inspirational movie.
It was only when the **** hit the fan for Lance, that they shelved the documentary. Then, at some point, Armstrong told them that he lied and that he was thinking about coming clean. This happened while Marshall/Tolmach were at a fundraiser in Austin. There was talk about changing the movie and coming clean in the documentary, but the timing didn't work. So they decided to make the movie, now about Armstrong lying. They went and filmed the Oprah interview, did a post-Oprah interview etc. It's all in the movie.
The point is that Armstrong was involved in the 'new' documentary from the beginning and he is financially profiting from the movie, still. It is no coincidence that Armstrong is doing tons of interviews just when the movie comes out.
Gibney I have the least issue with in all this. The project didn't originate from him. He's a hired filmmaker who knows nothing about cycling and was handed an opportunity that then had to be changed into something else. I don't think his heart was ever really in this project.
Marshall and Tolmach on the other hand are the real hypocrites in this. They were fans, lanceboys, but probably knew it wasn't all kosher. Then, when things went wrong, they made the decision to change the movie and make it about the lie they believed in, but knew wasn't true. Now they might be nominated for an Oscar.
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