Will Ferrell Joins '70s Tennis Drama 'Match Maker'

Anchorman star Will Ferrell is going back to the '70s — but this time, he'll be the guy making the news, not reporting it. Ferrell is attached to star in Match Maker, a drama about the legendary 1973 "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King.Steve Conrad (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty) is adapting the script from a 2013 ESPN article by Don Van Natta Jr. titled "The Match Maker: Bobby Riggs, the Mafia and the Battle of the Sexes." More details after the jump.

In addition to starring, Ferrell will also produce through Gary Sanchez along with Adam McKay. Peter Chernin and Jeno Topping are also on board as producers. Although Conrad is working on the script, no director is set at this time.

The Riggs-King match was watched by some 50 million Americans and is still remembered as an iconic moment in the sport. Riggs was 55 at the time, while King was a fresh-faced 29. Interestingly, he had just come off of a different "Battle of the Sexes" match, in which he defeated Margaret Court.

The event was dramatized as a TV movie in 2001 with Holly Hunter and Ron Silver starring. Recently, Danny Boyle indicated some interest in directing his own take on the match; it's unclear how Ferrell's project might affect Boyle's plans.

Ferrell's most recent releases were Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues and The Lego Movie, and he cropped up in the IFC comedy miniseries The Spoils of Babylon earlier this year. His upcoming movies include Welcome to Me with Kristen Wiig and Get Hard with Kevin Hart.

Conrad is currently preparing to direct an untitled John Belushi biopic starring Emile Hirsch.