Crazy Stupid Love co-stars Emma Stone and Steve Carell are to reunite for Battle of the Sexes, a comedy drama about the epic tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, reports the Wrap.
In 1973, King, then 29 and world No 2 female tennis player, was challenged to a match by Riggs, the 55-year-old retired former Wimbledon champion. She accepted and it was played in Houston, with a $100,000 prize and much pageantry. King was carried into the Astrodome on a throne held by four muscled men stripped to the waist, while Riggs followed in a rickshaw drawn by lightly dressed models. Riggs gave King a giant lollipop. She presented him with a piglet.
It is the third film in development about the clash: Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti are lined up for an HBO production, while Will Ferrell is attached to a competing title called Match Maker.
This latest project appears to have the greatest backing from those involved: King is said to be cooperating and writer Simon Beaufoy worked with Riggs before his death in 1995.
Husband-and-wife team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris – whose Little Miss Sunshine featured a breakthrough role for Carell – will direct, and Danny Boyle is set to produce.
