Oscar-nommed Emma Stone joins Steve Carell in “Battle of the Sexes”November 19, 2015 - 11:56 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Oscar-nominated actress Emma Stone is now set to play Billie Jean King opposite Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs in Fox Searchlight’s “Battle of the Sexes” after briefly walking away from the project, TheWrap has learned. Stone attached herself to play King back in April, though a scheduling conflict forced Fox Searchlight to approach Brie Larson to play the tennis legend as recently as September. With Larson moving on to replace Jennifer Lawrence in “The Glass Castle,” her schedule no longer allowed for “Battle of the Sexes,” and Fox Searchlight went back to Stone to secure the actress’ participation. “Little Miss Sunshine” filmmakers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris will direct from a script by Simon Beaufoy. Danny Boyle will produce under his Decibel Films banner along with Christian Colson and his company Cloud Eight. Beaufoy has been working on the script for several years and King has been cooperating with the project, though Riggs died in 1995. King was the No. 2 ranked female tennis player in 1973 when she, at 29 years old, was challenged by and defeated retired former Wimbledon champion Riggs, who was 55 at the time. “Battle of the Sexes” is the third project Hollywood is developing about King and Riggs but it is expected to be the first one in front of cameras. HBO has Elizabeth Banks and Paul Giamatti starring in an original movie, while Will Ferrell is attached to play Riggs in “Match Maker,” which his company Gary Sanchez is producing with Chernin Entertainment. The tone of the film is expected to be comedic, though clearly the material covers dramatic political themes with regard to gender. Stone recently starred in the back-to-back flops “Aloha” and “Irrational Man.” She next stars opposite Ryan Gosling in the musical “La La Land” — in a role originally meant for Emma Watson. Her re-casting was first reported by Variety. Top stories The creative crew of the Public TV had chosen 13-year-old Malena as a participant of this year's contest. She called on others to also suspend their accounts over the companies’ failure to tackle hate speech. Penderecki was known for his film scores, including for William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist”, Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The festival made the news public on March 19, saying that “several options are considered in order to preserve its running” Partner news | Armenia Security Council chief traveling to Qatar Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan will travel on a working visit to Qatar. Armenian Foreign Minister regrets “tragic loss” of Iranian counterpart The Armenian Foreign Ministry has expressed shock over the death of the Iranian President and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Armenian PM sends condolences to Iran Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sent a message of condolence to the Supreme Leader Seyyed Ali Khamenei. India wants Armenia’s proposals on use of Chabahar port India is expecting proposals from Armenia regarding the use of Chabahar port in Iran, Indian ambassador says. |