Colin Farrell Gambles on Netflix's Adaptation of 'The Ballad of a Small Player'

Netflix initially announced in April 2024 that it was commissioning a feature film adaptation of the 2014 bestseller The Ballad of a Small Player. The project is directed by Edward Berger, whose All Quiet on the Western Front swept the BAFTAs (though not the Oscars) in 2023; from the outset, Colin Farrell (The Penguin) was attached to play the lead role. A few weeks later, Netflix added another A-list lead to the movie, with Tilda Swinton (Three Thousand Years of Longing) joining Farrell on the project. Then, as Netflix projects do, it disappeared entirely from the radar.

Or it would have, had Farrell and Berger not had a one-two punch of promotion at the end of 2024 with HBO’s The Batman spinoff series The Penguin (think of it as The Gotham City Sopranos) debuting, followed by an awards push for Berger's current film, Conclave. As part of his barrage of interviews, Farrell started discussing the upcoming film, telling Collider that filming for The Ballad of a Small Player was “f*cking insane.”

Considering the fictional novel it’s based on, that’s not surprising. British novelist and journalist Lawrence Osborne’s eighth published work, it garnered rave reviews when it was released, with reviewers stating it was worthy of placing Osborne among the greats like Graham Greene and Dostoevsky. Set in the gambling casinos of Macau, it follows the fortunes of an English con man who passes himself off as a runaway Lord, but it’s also a mystery, a thriller, and a ghost story.

Here is the synopsis from Netflix:

The story follows a high-stakes gambler who decides to lay low in Macau after his past and debts catch up with him. Along the way he encounters a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation.

And here's the novel's official synopsis, which provides a bit more detail:

As night falls on Macau and the neon signs that line the rain-slick streets come alive, Doyle – “Lord Doyle” to his fellow players – descends into his casino of choice to try his luck at the baccarat tables that are the anchor of his current existence. A corrupt English lawyer who has escaped prosecution by fleeing to the East, Doyle spends his nights drinking and gambling and his days sleeping off his excesses, continually haunted by his past. Taking refuge in a series of louche and dimly lit hotels, he watches his fortune rise and fall as the cards decide his fate. In a crisis, he meets Dao-Ming, an enigmatic Chinese woman who appears to be a casino denizen like himself and seems to offer him salvation in the form of money and love. However, as Doyle attempts to make a rare and genuine connection, all that he accepts as reality seems to slip from his grasp.

Farrell plays Lord Doyle; Swinton's role has not been disclosed. Before you assume another thoughtless director has cast Swinton in a role meant for an Asian actor, you should know that Fala Chen (The Undoing) will play the "mysterious woman." Jason Tobin (A Thousand Blows) rounds out the main cast. 

Rowan Joffe (28 Weeks Later) adapts Osborne's novel for the big screen, with Berger directing. Berger also executive produces via his Nine Hours banner alongside Mike Goodridge for Good Chaos and Matthew James Wilkinson for Stigma Films.

The Ballad of a Small Player is expected to arrive on Netflix before the end of 2025.