Actor Nick Cannon has been hired by Will Smith to play late tennis ace Arthur Ashe in a new biographical motion picture.

Smith will produce the project, and Bobby star Cannon can't wait to start taking tennis lessons so he can play the African-American sports legend authentically.

Cannon says, "Not only is he a sports icon in the game of tennis but he's also a civil rights activist who did so much for our culture... and just stood for so much as a philanthropist and humanitarian.

"It's a thrill for me that I get to play somebody of that stature."

The unnamed project will start shooting later this year.