Bradley Cooper to Play Lance Armstrong in Biopic…Maybe

If you want to do a feel-good biopic about somebody who is awesome, you have to wait a long time after that person is dead so that nobody will remember that they probably weren't really that perfect. Hence the Jackie Robinson biopic 42, which came out 66 years after the guy broke Major League Baseball's color barrier.

If, on the other hand, you want to do a movie about some asshole who pissed a bunch of people off, well, you can go ahead and get started on that right away.

That's why there are currently three—that's right, three—Lance Armstrong biopics in the works. Ever since he went on Oprah back in January to confess what everyone already knew—that he doped to win every one of those Tour de France victories—Studio execs have been falling all over themselves trying to fast track a movie about this great American hero lying, megalomaniacal d-bag.

Now there is word (via Deadline) that one of the three Lance Armstrong projects has pulled ahead of the pack by bringing Bradley Cooper on board as star and producer. That film, awesomely titled Red Blooded American, is being written by Scott Z. Burns and directed by Jay Roach.

At this point it's unclear whether Cooper will play Lance Armstrong or Tyler Hamilton, the guy who finally ratted Armstrong out. However, it seems pretty unlikely that Cooper would pass up the chance to play the big guy himself. Everyone knows that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences loves actors who transform their physical appearance. If Cooper loses 40 pounds and has one of his testicles removed, that Oscar for Best Actor is as good as his.