It is quite possibly the most popular tennis match there’s ever been. In 1973, Billie Jean King took on Bobby Riggs in the famous "Battle of the Sexes." The upcomig film of the same name has been looking for a new Billie Jean King. Now it looks like they may have found their tennis star in Brie Larson.
The film originally cast Emma Stone in the famous role, but she recently had to drop out due to a scheduling conflict. According to Variety, producers now have their eyes on Larson to take over the part. Whoever takes the role will be acting opposite Steve Carrell as Bobby Riggs. The movie is going to be directed by the Little Miss Sunshine team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who Carrell is familiar with, as he had a role in that film. Larson has been in negotiations to team up with them before, when they were working on a film adaptation of Matthew Quick’s The Good Luck of Right Now.
The 1973 tennis match, in which the 29-year-old King famously beat the 55-year-old Riggs, is a hot topic these days as there are no fewer than three different films in development that deal with the event. HBO is working with Tom Hanks' Playtone production company on Proof, which is set to star Paul Giamatti and Elizabeth Banks in the two key roles, while Match Maker has Will Ferrell attached to play Riggs, though there’s no one to play King on board yet. Battle appears to have an inside track in what we’re going to call "The Battle Of The Battle Of The Sexes" for a number of reasons. The primary one being that Billy Jean King herself as actually been working with screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) on this version.
Larson has been on a hot streak of late. She spent the summer in Amy Schumer’s hit R-rated comedy, Trainwreck; her new film, Room, has some serious buzz surrounding it heading into the Oscar season; and she’s currently on board to bring King Kong back to the big screen in Skull Island alongside Tom Hiddleston. Adding in a high-profile biopic on top of everything else may make Larson the hottest woman in Hollywood. The only problem is that being in such high demand is what leads to scheduling problems like those that forced Stone out the role the first place.
Battle of the Sexes looks to have the strongest team both in front and behind the camera, and if Larson does join the cast, it only gets better. We may already know how it ends, but we’d watch Brie Larson kick Steve Carell's butt on the tennis court any day.
