Four years ago documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney decided to chronicle Lance Armstrong's surprise return to professional cycling.

Subsequently Gibney shelved his project as the doping scandal involving Armstrong erupted in the months and years that followed. Instead of dumping his project altogether, though, Gibney has turned his material into “The Armstrong Lie”, a two hour film that will premiere in the USA on November 8.

Armstrong’s widely publicised doping admission came in an interview with Oprah Winfrey earlier this year and made it possible for Gibney to proceed with a vastly different narrative, one that, judging from the recently released trailer, seems to focus as much on the power and cult of personality surrounding Armstrong as the doping-infested issues themselves.

Sony Pictures has just released the first trailer for The Armstrong Lie. The film records Armstrong’s rise to fame and fortune and examines the fall from the pinnacles in one of the greatest scandals in the history of all sports.