Colin Farrell plays a conman in 'The Ballad of a Small Player,' coming to Netflix this October

 

After critical acclaim and audience acclaim for his films Conclave and All Quiet on the Western Front, filmmaker Edward Berger is gearing up to release The Ballad of a Small Player, headlined by Colin Farrell. The film will hit Netflix worldwide on October 29 after a limited theatrical run in select movie screens.

The film is based on Lawrence Osborne's 2014 novel of the same name, adapted for the screen by Rowan Joffé ("Tin Star", "Before I Go to Sleep").

The film has Farrell playing Lord Doyle, a conman and gambler masquerading as a nobleman seeking solace in China's Macau, where he meets a woman who could salvage him from the demons that torment him. The source story has been described as a blend of psychological story and ghost story, inviting comparisons to the works of Graham Greene and Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Aside from Farrell, the cast includes Tilda Swinton ("Michael Clayton"), Fala Chen ("The Undoing"), Deanie Ip ("A Simple Life"), and Alex Jennings ("The Crown"). 

Cinematographer James Friend and composer Volker Bertlemann, both of whom have worked with Berger in All Quiet on the Western Front, are part of the technical crew of The Ballad of a Small Player. The team also include production designer Jonathan Houlding, who has worked on The Martian and Poor Things. Editing duties are handled by Nick Emerson ("Conclave").

Mike Goodridge, who produced Triangle of Sadness, and Matthew James Wilkinson, who produced Yesterday, are backing the film. 

 

Farell is coming off the successes of HBO Max's The Penguin, for which has been nominated for the Emmys in the Best Actor in a Limited Series category, and the Apple TV+ series Sugar, in which he plays a private detective with a mysterious past.

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