How Battle of the Sexes Composer Nicholas Britell Uses ’70s Technology to Make Modern Score Feel Retro
Over the past five years, composer Nicholas Britell has built a name working on some of the most impressive and artful Best Picture nominees in recent memory: Twelve Years a Slave, Whiplash, The Big Short and, most recently, the stunning (and Oscar-winning) Moonlight. This year, Britell entered the Oscar race once again with Battle of the Sexes, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ charmingly vivid retelling of the historic tennis match and rivalry between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.
Production Designer Serves up History in Battle of the Sexes
Oscar-nominated for her production design on American Hustle, which takes place in 1978, Judy Becker also designed The Fighter (set in 1976), Feud (1962) and Hitchcock (1960). Now she’s brought her retro touch to Battle of the Sexes, focused on Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) as she discovers her own sexuality in the run-up to her historic 1973 tennis match against self declared “male chauvinist”
Californians Claim a Victory with Battle of the Sexes
Last week, we published our tennis obsessed correspondent David Thorpe’s fantastic interview with Battle of the Sexes editor Pamela Martin, about how Martin helped turned stars Emma Stone and Steve Carell into tennis stars Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. It took a village—including Martin, cinematographer Linus Sandgreen, and the visual effects company Lola—to turn Stone and Carell into their hard-hitting characters in their iconic tennis battle for the ages.
“We’ve never had that great tennis movie because it’s too hard to re-create,” Martin told us.
Battle of the Sexes Editor Pamela Martin on Turning Emma Stone & Steve Carell Into Tennis Pros
When I heard that Emma Stone and Steve Carell were starring in a new movie about the legendary Battle of the Sexes tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, I rolled my eyes. I’m both a filmmaker and a tennis nut. (I got rid of my cable TV, literally, for 10 years because I couldn’t stop myself from watching the Tennis Channel). I winced at the thought of the obvious cutaways and close-ups the editor would need to rely on to hide the fact that Stone and Carell,
TIFF 2017: What We’re Excited About This Year in Toronto
It’s not the only major film festival this season — Venice and Telluride rolled out first and boasted many of the same marquee titles. But the Toronto International Film Festival, running for 11 days, beginning this Thursday, September 7, and carrying on until the 17th, has a ton of cache. Not only does it take place in one of the friendliest, most cosmopolitan cities in the world, but TIFF has a strong record of showcasing eventual awards-season winners,
