The one-and-only match between tennis legends Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs is going to be recreated for an HBO movie.
“Battle of the Sexes” was a 1973 televised match in the Houston Astrodome between King, then 29, and Riggs, then 55 and retired. It drew huge ratings for ABC, some 50 million viewers. King won the match in three sets, scooping up $100,000 in prize money and savoring a symbolic victory for the feminist movement of the time.
Riggs was surprised by King’s victory, as he had previously played a similar match against Margaret Court and won.
The movie will star Paul Giamatti and Elizabeth Banks as the pros. Giamatti won an Emmy for his role as “John Adams,” an HBO miniseries. Tom Hanks and his partner Gary Goetzman, who have collaborated on many projects for the cable network, notably the iconic miniseries “Band of Brothers,” will produce. Playwright David Auburn (“Proof”) is writing the script.