Netflix has announced it has a fantastic new psychological thriller in the works – and we can’t wait for this one to air!
Based on Lawrence Osborne’s novel The Ballad of a Small Player – described as a “riveting tale of risk and obsession” – the film follows a high-stakes gambler attempting to outrun his past while keeping a low profile in Macau, China.
The film stars Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton, and is directed by Edward Berger, best known for the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave.
Screenwriter Rowan Joffé (28 Weeks Later, The American) has adapted the book for film, which is set to hit screens on 29 October.
Read on to find out everything we know so far.
What is Ballad of a Small Player about?
The official Netflix synopsis reads: “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.”
While the streamer has yet to reveal more details about the screen adaptation, the book’s synopsis reads: “His name is Lord Doyle. His plan: to gamble away his last days in the dark and decadent casino halls of Macau. His game: baccarat punto blanco – ‘that slutty dirty queen of casino card games’.
“Though Doyle is not a Lord at all. He is a fake; a corrupt lawyer who has spent a career siphoning money from rich clients. And now he is on the run, determined to send the money – and himself – up in smoke.”
It continues: “So begins a beguiling, elliptical velvet rope of a plot: a sharp suit, yellow kid gloves, another naughty lemonade and an endless loop of small wins and losses.
© Courtesy of Netflix“When Lady Luck arrives in the form of Dao-Ming, a beautiful yet enigmatic lost soul, so begins a spectacular and unnatural winning streak in which millions come Doyle’s way.
“But in these shadowy dens of risk and compulsion, in a land governed by superstition, Doyle knows that when the bets are high, the stakes are even greater.”
The synopsis concludes: “The Ballad of a Small Player is a sleek, dark-hearted masterpiece: a ghost story set in the land of the living, and a decadent morality tale of a Faustian pact made, not with the devil, but with fortune’s fickle hand.”
Who stars in Ballad of a Small Player?
Colin Farrell, known for his roles in The Banshees of Inisherin, The Batman and In Bruges, leads the cast as Lord Doyle.
© Courtesy of NetflixHe’s joined by Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton, Okja, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), Fala Chen (The Undoing), Deanie Ip (A Simple Life) and Alex Jennings (The Crown).
When will Ballad of a Small Player be released?
Ballad of a Small Player will be available to watch in select theaters in October and is set to hit Netflix globally on 29 October.
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