The German Oscar winner Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”) is expanding the star cast for his next directorial project. In addition to the Irish actor Colin Farrell (47, “The Banshees of Inisherin”), the director is also bringing the Scottish Oscar winner Tilda Swinton (63, “Michael Clayton”) in front of the camera for the film adaptation of the novel “The Ballad of a Small Player”. This was announced by the streaming service Netflix.
Filming is scheduled to begin this summer in Asia. The Brit Rowan Joffe (“The American”) is providing the script. The original is the novel by the British travel reporter and writer Lawrence Osborne, who has lived in Asia for many years and has written about the culture there.
“The Ballad of a Small Player” (2014) centers on a British gambler with a shady past who poses as Lord Doyle in the casino city of Macau. He tries his luck as a card player – and accumulates debts. Meeting a woman changes his life.
Swinton, who most recently starred alongside Michael Fassbender in the thriller “The Killer” (2023), is from films as diverse as “Orlando”, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, “Snowpiercer”, “Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Asteroid City”.
Berger’s literary adaptation “All Quiet in the West” won four awards at the Oscars in 2023, including best international film. The Wolfsburg native most recently shot the novel adaptation “Conclave” in Rome with Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini. The thriller about the sudden death of a pope and the election of a successor is scheduled to hit theaters in November.
