Filming is now underway in Los Angeles on Fox Searchlight’s Battle of the Sexes starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell. The film revisits the battle on court and in the media between tennis greats Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, with Emma Stone tackling the role of the legendary Billie Jean King and Steve Carell playing Bobby Riggs. The Little Miss Sunshine filmmakers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are directing from a script by Slumdog Millionaire‘s Simon Beaufoy. Danny Boyle, Christian Colson, and Robert Graf are on board as producers.
The cast also includes Elisabeth Shue, Sarah Silverman, Alan Cumming, Andrea Riseborough, Eric Christian Olsen, Natalie Morales, Austin Stowell, Wallace Langham, Jessica McNamee, Mickey Sumner, and Bill Pullman.
“If all men and women worked as well together as Jon Dayton and Valerie Faris,” stated Boyle and Colson, “the world would be a more harmonious place. Together with Emma, Steve and the rest of our fabulous cast they are the perfect team to realize Simon Beaufoy’s brilliant ballad of Billie and Bobby–the perfect odd couple.”
“The irony isn’t lost on us that we are a husband-and-wife team directing the Battle of the Sexes. As soon as we read Simon’s script we knew we had to make this film. We feel so fortunate to have gathered such an amazing group of artists, both behind and in front of camera,” added Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.
The Battle of the Sexes Plot: The electrifying 1973 tennis match between World number one Billie Jean King (Stone) and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs (Carell) was billed as the BATTLE OF THE SEXES and became the most watched televised sports event of all time. The match caught the zeitgeist and sparked a global conversation on gender equality, spurring on the feminist movement. Trapped in the media glare, King and Riggs were on opposites sides of a binary argument, but off-court each was fighting more personal and complex battles. With a supportive husband urging her to fight the Establishment for equal pay, the fiercely private King was also struggling to come to terms with her own sexuality, while Riggs gambled his legacy and reputation in a bid to relive the glories of his past. Together, Billie and Bobby served up a cultural spectacle that resonated far beyond the tennis courts and animated the discussions between men and women in bedrooms and boardrooms around the world.
