Emma Stone is set to take on the role she had to turn down earlier this year, the role of tennis pro Billie Jean King in Fox Searchlight’s upcoming sports film Battle of the Sexes.
Stone has been the forerunner for this role for a while however due to scheduling conflicts she had to turn the role down earlier this year. In her place, Brie Larson was rumoured to be taking the part. However it has now been confirmed that Stone’s schedule has been worked to allow her to take on the role, according to reports by Variety.
”The Battle of the Sexes” will focus on the infamous tennis match between Bille Jean King, one of the top female tennis players of 1973 and former tennis champion Bobby Riggs (played by Steve Carrell). The highly publicised exhibition match was dubbed Battle of the Sexes by Riggs and made headlines when the 29 year old King beat the former champion, 55 year old Riggs.
The match is due to be the focus of a number of other projects including ”Proof” featuring Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti, written by The Lake House writer David Auburn and ”Match Maker” starring Will Ferrell and written by Steve Conrad, known for writing the screenplay for ”The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”.
”The Battle of the Sexes” is due to be penned by ”Everest” and ”Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” writer Simon Beaufoy and directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the directorial team behind ”Little Miss Sunshine”. The production team is currently due to consist of ”Slumdog Millionaire” director Danny Boyle and ”Slumdog Millionaire” producer Christian Colson.
Emma Stone is currently set to star in ”La La Land” alongside Ryan Gosling due for release next year, as well as being due to feature in ”The Croods” sequel and Yorgos Lanthimos’ ”The Favourite” in 2017.
Currently there are no dates released for ”Battle of the Sexes”.
