‘Hard Miles’: Matthew Modine to Star in Bicycling Drama!!

Deadline reports that Stranger Things actor Matthew Modine will star in the upcoming cycling drama Hard Miles. The film, which is already in production, will follow the true story of a cycling team of at-risk youths. Modine is set to play the team’s coach.

Hard Miles is based on the true story of Ridge View Academy’s cycling team. The Colorado-based school first opened in 2001 as an attempt to respond to the state’s rise in crimes committed by juveniles. Since then, the school has claimed to have helped over four thousand young men. The school’s cycling itself has been dedicated for decades to giving second chances to “at-risk youth” through “academic rigor, targeted treatment, competitive sports, and leadership”. Modine has been cast to play Greg Townsend, who in real-life has been coaching cycling teams for over thirty years. The exact story from the team’s storied history that the film plans to tell is currently being kept under wraps.

Modine is an award-winning actor with a vast and wide-spanning career. Modine has had roles in critically acclaimed films like Full Metal Jacket and Short Cuts and audience favorites and cult classics like Any Given Sunday and Cutthroat Island. He is likely best known to recent audiences for his role as the always scheming Dr. Brenner in the worldwide hit Netflix series Stranger Things. Modine’s career also includes roles in films like Sicario: Day of the Soldado, 47 Meters Down, and The Dark Knight Rises as well as series like Weeds, Proof, and Sanctuary. Next Modine can be seen in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and starring alongside Liam Neeson in the action-thriller Retribution.

Hard Miles is set to be the sophomore film for director R.J. Daniel Hanna, and will be reuniting him with Modine. Hanna is an award-winning short film director and 2021 Academy Nicholl Fellow, who made his feature film debut in 2019. His debut film was the social drama Miss Virginia which co-starred Modine. Hard Miles was written by Hanna with Christian Sander. The pair also consulted a number of professional cyclists on the film like Christian Vande Velde and George Hincapie, who have both been on Tour de France winning cycling teams. Scott Sander will be executive producing the film for Pensé Productions.