Netflix Picks Up Russian Olympic Doping Doc Icarus

PARK CITY: Netflix has bagged the rights to debut Icarus, a documentary that explores the world of sports doping, to its members in 190 countries later this year.

Icarus, which premiered to critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival, comes from Bryan Fogel. In the doc, the endurance cyclist sets out to investigate doping in sports by doping himself, documenting the changes in his performance over a pair of races and seeing if he can avoid detection. Fogel also meets Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of Russia’s government anti-doping program. Allegations emerged that Rodchenkov actually ran a large-scale doping scheme during the Sochi Olympics.

“Fogel’s incredible risk-taking has delivered an absorbing real-life thriller that continues to have global reverberations,” said Lisa Nishimura, Netflix’s VP of original documentaries. “By ripping the cover off of an international doping-industrial complex, Icarus is an incredible story that shows how far some people will go to uphold national pride.”

Fogel said, “This has been an intense 3.5 year personal journey that exposed the biggest scandal in sports history. To be able to work with Netflix, a company that is able to launch this story globally in such a big way, with such potential for social and political impact, is a spectacular honor.”