The first trailer has been released for sports comedy drama Battle of the Sexes starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell. The film tells the true story of when former tennis champ Bobby Riggs challenged then-world number one Billie Jean King to a 'man vs woman' match in September 1973.

Having retired professionally back in 1951, Riggs had made somewhat of a name for himself as a non-believer in women's tennis and declared that even at the age of 55, he could beat any of the female players at the top of the game. So much so, that he set out to prove it.

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King wasn't the first woman to play Riggs however, having initially rejecting his first offer. It was another tennis great, Margaret Court, who took him on a few months earlier in May. Riggs won that match easily with Court crippled by nerves, before King eventually agrees to take him to court so to speak.

The Court vs Riggs' match was not televised, but such was the interest in the King match-up it was sold to a TV company, and a 30,472-strong audience at the Houston Astrodome watched what was the largest tennis match live in US history until July 2010.

While what happened during the match is common knowledge, the trailer manages to not give too much away. Instead, it focuses on establishing the characters with Carell's Riggs dropping questionable one-liners such as, "I'll put the 'show' back in 'chauvinism'" and "Don't get me wrong, I love women – in the bedroom and in the kitchen", as well as King's relationship at the time with Andrea Riseborough's Marilyn Barnett.

Even without the definitive plot details, this one looks to be both funny and moving, a mix that film fans have come to expect from Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.

Also starring Justin Stowell, Sarah Silverman, Alan Cumming and Elizabeth Shue, Battle of the Sexes is released in the US on 22 September. It will reach big screens in the UK on 24 November.