Emma Stone, Steve Carell To Star As King And Riggs In ‘Battle Of The Sexes’
Emma Stone and Steve Carell have signed on to recreate possibly the most historic tennis match in history.
According to The Wrap, Stone will play Billie Jean King to Steve Carell’s Bobby Riggs in a historic biopic titled “Battle of the Sexes,” a Fox Searchlight project. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the filmmakers behind Little Miss Sunshine, will work with script creator Simon Beaufoy. Danny Boyle will produce under his Decibel Films company along with Christian Colson with his Cloud Eight studios.
Beaufoy has been working on the project for many years now and has been working with King on the script. Riggs passed away in 1995.
The film will focus on 1973, when King, then the No. 2 women’s tennis player at 29, was challenged to a tennis match by Riggs, then 53. King won in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3. In May of 1973, Riggs had challenged and defeated Margaret Court, 6-2, 6-1.
The mood of the film is expected to be comedic, while leaning towards the exploration of the gender bias of the times. Battle Of The Sexes will be ready for release in 2016.
This is not the first time Stone and Carell have worked together. The two Oscar nominees played a father-daughter combo in the movie Crazy Stupid Love.
Deadline is reporting that this is not the only biopic dealing with the famed tennis match. HBO and Playtone have paired Paul Giamatti to play Riggs and Elizabeth Banks as King, the script being written by Proof writer David Auburn. Gary Sanchez is teaming with Chernin Entertainment and writer Steve Conrad for Match Maker, with Will Ferrell portraying Riggs.
Stone has been nominated twice for the Golden Globe award and once for an Academy award. Stone’s first Golden Globe nomination was in 2011 for the movie Easy A. Stone has been nominated in 2015 for both the Golden Globe and Oscar for her role in the movie Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
Stone has been acting since 2004, working in both television and movies. Stone is known for working in the films The Help (2011), The Amazing Spiderman 2 (2013), and Gangster Squad (2013). Stone also has movies soon to be released, including Aloha (2015), Irrational Man (2015), and The Croods 2 (2017).
Stone and Bryce Dallas Howard, who both starred in The Help, both played Gwen Stacy in different reboots of The Amazing Spiderman. Though Stone will be donning brunette hair for Battle Of The Sexes, and her natural hair color is blonde, Stone will most likely go back to red after the film, a color she adopted for Superbad and turned out Stone really liked.
[Image courtesy of Wall Convert]
