Here’s something a little unexpected especially from Emma Stone who is to appear as 70’s tennis great Billie Jean King with Steve Carrell as Bobby Riggs in ‘BATTLE OF THE SEXES’
Principal photography has just begun in Los Angeles and stars Oscar-nominees Emma Stone (BIRDMAN, THE HELP) Steve Carell (FOXCATCHER, THE BIG SHORT), and Elisabeth Shue (LEAVING LAS VEGAS, CHASING MAVERICKS)
along with
Sarah Silverman (“Masters of Sex”, I SMILE BACK),
Alan Cumming (“The Good Wife”, X-MEN 2),
Andrea Riseborough (BIRDMAN),
Eric Christian Olsen (“CSI: Los Angeles”),
Natalie Morales (“The Grinder”),
Austin Stowell (BRIDGE OF SPIES, WHIPLASH),
Wallace Langham (RUBY SPARKS, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE),
Jessica McNamee (LAST DAYS OF SUMMER),
Mickey Sumner (THE END OF THE TOUR)
and Bill Pullman (LBJ, THE EQUALIZER).
Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, creators of the Oscar-winning LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE and indie favourite RUBY SPARKS, have turned their attention to a period in 1970’s America that presaged a cultural tsunami.
The film features what is now a long forgotten but major TV event in the US – an electrifying 1973 tennis match between World number one Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell) 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.
Here’s the first picture of them in character and we’re sure Michael Jackson sang a song about her (‘You’re an idiot’ – Ed)
