It looks Danny Boyle has some unlikely competition. In February, reports surfaced that the director was working with screenwriter John Hodge on a film about infamous 1973 "Battles Of The Sexes" tennis match that pitted Billie Jean King against the somewhat sexist braggard, and emerging from retirement, Bobby Riggs. Their showdown made headlines back then, and in the past couple years, with suggestions that Riggs threw the match to pay off debts. Either way it’s a helluva tale.
And now Will Ferrell is a part of another brewing project about the tennis saga, joining "Match Maker." Steve Conrad ("The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty") will pen the script, based on the ESPN article “The Match Maker: Bobby Riggs, the Mafia and the Battle of the Sexes,” that will chronicle the match and events around it. But this one is a long way off.
It’s not clear if Conrad will also direct, and even if he does, it’ll have to wait until his James Belushi biopic is finished. As for Ferrell, he can cross off another cinematic sport off his list after the basketball flick "Semi-Pro" and soccer movie "Kicking & Screaming." [Variety]