Baldwin Entertainment and GlennIris Entertainment have optioned Frank Deford's novel "Big Bill" about tennis legend Bill Tilden says Variety.

Tilden dominated tennis in the 1920s, winning six straight U.S. Open singles titles and becoming the first American to win Wimbledon.

He was also a contract bridge champ, musicologist, novelist, playwright and actor. He was also famously self-destructive, going to jail twice for sexual misbehavior with teenage boys and dying penniless.

Deford adapted his work into a screenplay which Howard Baldwin ("Ray") will produce.