{"id":317200,"date":"2024-04-11T17:10:33","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T22:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=317200"},"modified":"2024-04-12T09:06:28","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T14:06:28","slug":"colin-farrell-to-star-in-gambling-movie-the-ballad-of-a-small-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/colin-farrell-to-star-in-gambling-movie-the-ballad-of-a-small-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Colin Farrell to Star in Macau Gambling Movie \u2018The Ballad of a Small Player\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irish star Colin Farrell is to star in a new Netflix movie, “The Ballad of a Small Player.” Based on the novel of the same name by British author Lawrence Osborne, the story follows an English con artist\u2019s gambling misadventures in the sleazier casinos of Macau.<\/p>\n

\"Colin
Colin Farrell, above, will play a fake English aristocrat indifferently risking it all in Macau in the forthcoming Edward Berger movie. (Image: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The film will be directed by Edward Berger, who won an Oscar for his 2022 Netflix anti-war epic “All Quiet on the Western Front.”<\/p>\n

Farrell will play Gerard Woodward, a high-rolling swindler who decamps to Macau to escape the clutches of the law back home. While there, he poses as the aristocrat \u201cLord Doyle,\u201d although he’s really the son of a vacuum cleaner salesman from an unfashionable part of South London.<\/p>\n

Crash and Burn<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In Macau, Woodward hits the baccarat tables and is prepared to gamble himself broke, ambivalent to whether he wins or loses. He made his fortune robbing wealthy old ladies, and now he is ready to shed some guilt in the form of casino chips.<\/p>\n

The novel is suffused with Chinese superstitions around gambling, which Woodward pretends to disdain but to which he ultimately succumbs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a neon demi-monde of dimly lit hotel rooms and punto banco tables, he ghosts drunkenly across casino carpets of \u201csweet rancid sponginess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indifferent to his fate, he crashes and burns, before an encounter with a kindred spirit, high-class call girl Dao-Ming, who offers him some hope of salvation as the story climaxes in a weird supernatural twist.<\/p>\n

Stuck in Development <\/strong><\/h2>\n

“The Ballad of a Small Player” was highly acclaimed following its 2014 publication, and film rights were quickly snapped up. But the movie has been stuck in development for the best part of a decade. Shooting is scheduled to start this summer.<\/p>\n

The screenwriter and director Rowan Joffe will adapt the novel into a screenplay, and the movie will be produced by UK company Good Chaos and Berger\u2019s own Nine Hours.<\/p>\n

\n

Plot details are being kept under wraps, according to The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>, but the official release describes the movie as \u201can imaginative tale of two strangers and the unbelievable journey that connects them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Fresh from his Oscar-nominated turn in “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Farrell will soon be seen in “Batman” spin-off, “The Penguin” for Max<\/em>, due out in the fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Irish star Colin Farrell is to star in a new Netflix movie, “The Ballad of a Small Player.” Based on the novel of the same name by British author Lawrence Osborne, the story follows an English con artist\u2019s gambling misadventures in the sleazier casinos of Macau. The film will be directed by Edward Berger, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":317201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69069,3313],"tags":[90508,90507,90509,90510,51],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nColin Farrell to Star in Gambling Movie \u2018The Ballad of a Small Player\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"]The Ballad of a Small Player will be set in the casinos of Macau and star Colin Farrell as English conman \u201cLord Doyle.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/colin-farrell-to-star-in-gambling-movie-the-ballad-of-a-small-player\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Colin Farrell to Star in Gambling Movie \u2018The Ballad of a Small Player\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"]The Ballad of a Small Player will be set in the casinos of Macau and star Colin Farrell as English conman \u201cLord Doyle.\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/colin-farrell-to-star-in-gambling-movie-the-ballad-of-a-small-player\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-11T22:10:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-12T14:06:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Colin.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"625\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/colin-farrell-to-star-in-gambling-movie-the-ballad-of-a-small-player\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/colin-farrell-to-star-in-gambling-movie-the-ballad-of-a-small-player\/\",\"name\":\"Colin Farrell to Star in Gambling Movie \u2018The Ballad of a Small Player\u2019\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/colin-farrell-to-star-in-gambling-movie-the-ballad-of-a-small-player\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/colin-farrell-to-star-in-gambling-movie-the-ballad-of-a-small-player\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Colin.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-11T22:10:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-12T14:06:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"]The Ballad of a Small Player will be set in the casinos of Macau and star Colin Farrell as English conman \u201cLord Doyle.\u201d\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/colin-farrell-to-star-in-gambling-movie-the-ballad-of-a-small-player\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/colin-farrell-to-star-in-gambling-movie-the-ballad-of-a-small-player\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/colin-farrell-to-star-in-gambling-movie-the-ballad-of-a-small-player\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Colin.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Colin.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":625,\"caption\":\"Colin Farrell, above, will play a fake English aristocrat indifferently risking it all in Macau in the forthcoming Edward Berger movie. 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