After singing and dancing her way to an Oscar in “La La Land,” Emma Stone is strapping on some sneakers and hitting the courts for “Battle Of The Sexes,” and some new images have landed.
The film reteams the actress with her “Crazy Stupid Love” co-star Steve Carell, for this based-on-a-true-story tale about the titular 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, which tackled the conversation about gender and sports head on. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (“Little Miss Sunshine“) directed the project, and the zeitgeist of the ’70s will not be lost in their film.
“This was a really important and serious time in the women’s liberation movement, and it was one of the first times that a political issue was acted out in the circus-like atmosphere,” Dayton told People. “It just felt incredibly relevant to today’s time.” Here’s the official synopsis:
The electrifying 1973 tennis match between World number one Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs (Steve 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.
“Battle Of The Sexes” opens on September 22nd.
