Emma Stone to play Billie Jean King in Danny Boyle's Battle of the Sexes

Actress Emma Stone is set to portray tennis great Billie Jean King in filmmaker Danny Boyle's upcoming Battle Of The Sexes biopic, opposite Steve Carell as Bobby Riggs.

The Crazy, Stupid, Love co-stars will reunite for the project, which will chronicle the sports legends' 1973 tennis court meeting in Houston, Texas, where 29-year-old King, then the world's number two woman, beat retired Wimbledon champion Riggs, 55.

The script for Battle of the Sexes has been penned by Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire screenwriter Simon Beaufoy with co-operation from King herself, and the project will begin production this autumn (15).

Carell's Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris will take charge of the film, which will be co-produced by Boyle for a 2016 release, according to Deadline.com.

It's the third movie in development to detail the Battle of the Sexes sporting showdown - The Hunger Games star Elizabeth Banks is in talks to tackle the role of King in a TV project, with Paul Giamatti as Riggs, while Will Ferrell has signed on to play the late tennis ace in another rival production, titled Match Maker.

Riggs died in 1995.