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Lance Armstrong’s Dodgeball Cameo Was Not A Good Idea, Says Director

Rawson Marshall Thurber, the director of ‘Central Intelligence’ (in cinemas this week) and ‘Dodgeball: A True Underdog Stroy’, says Lance Armstrong’s cameo in his 2005 film has taken on a “different pallor” in the wake of the cyclist’s fall from sporting grace.

When quizzed whether a long-rumoured sequel to the Vince Vaughn sports comedy would address Armstrong’s cameo, Thurber replied with a laugh, “You know, gosh, it’s such a strange thing to look at in retrospect, right? Because at the time it was the perfect guy - this is the perfect guy - for this moment, and it definitely takes on a different pallor now.”

The cyclist appears in the film as an inspirational figure when Vaughn’s character Pete LeFleur is on the verge of quitting his team.

“You know once I thought about quitting,” Armstrong tells LeFleur, “when I was diagnosed with brain, lung, and testicular cancer all at the same time. But with the love and support of my family I got back on the bike and I won the Tour De France five times in a row.”

Armstrong was eventually stripped of all his Tour De France titles following a doping scandal that saw him handed a lifetime ban from the sport, so perhaps he wasn’t the best man for the job after all.

On that long-rumoured ‘Dodgeball’ sequel though, Thurber admits there’s been no movement whatsoever, despite a scriptwriter being hired for the job back in 2013.

“There’s nothing active on the ‘Dodgeball’ sequel at the moment,” Thurber told us, “I feel like I said everything I needed to say in one movie about Dodgeball. I’m very proud of that picture, so there’s nothing active at the moment.”

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Watch our exclusive interview with ‘Central Intelligence’ stars Kevin Hart and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson below…

Image credit: 20th Century Fox