Netflix's 'The Ballad of a Small Player' Casts Tilda Swinton in Adaptation

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Tilda Swinton Joins Colin Farrell In Netflix's 'The Ballad of a Small Player'

By Rob London

Published Apr 30, 2024

'All Quiet on the Western Front's Edward Berger will direct the film as it heads into production this summer.

Image Via United Artists Releasing

The Big Picture

Tilda Swinton joins Colin Farrell in a new Netflix film titled The Ballad of a Small Player.
Swinton's role in the Macau-set movie is still a mystery.
Edward Berger will direct from an adaptation of Lawrence Osborne's novel of the same name.

Tilda Swinton will be singing The Ballad of a Small Player for Netflix. The actor joins Colin Farrell in the new film, the latest from All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger. Deadline reports that the Macau-set film is slated to begin production in Asia this summer.

Based on the 2014 Lawrence Osborne novel of the same name, The Ballad of a Small Player will star Farrell as a gambler and con man who flees the UK for the Chinese gambling mecca Macau. There, he finds a kindred spirit who he believes may be his salvation. Swinton's role is currently being kept under wraps, as is any additional casting. This will be Berger's second English-language feature after he gained worldwide acclaim for his WWI drama All Quiet on the Western Front. His first, the Vatican City thriller Conclave, which stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini, will be released later this year.

What is Tilda Swinton Working On Now?

The ever-busy Swinton has a number of projects in the works after starring in Three Thousand Years of Longing, Pinocchio, and The Killer in recent years. Swinton can currently be seen in Julio Torres' directorial debut, Problemista, which was released by A24 earlier this year. She has a number of projects in the works, including Joshua Oppenheimer's apocalyptic musical The End, an as-yet-untitled project from Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Pedro Almodóvar's first English-language feature, The Room Next Door, which she will star in with Julianne Moore and John Turturro. It also wouldn't be a surprise to see her turn up in Wes Anderson's new film, as Swinton has become a regular part of the director's ensemble; she has appeared in his last five features, including last year's Asteroid City.

The Ballad of a Small Player was written by Rowan Joffe, writer of 28 Weeks Later, The American, and The Informer. It will be produced by Mike Goodridge via Good Chaos, Berger via Nine Hours, and Matthew James Wilkinson for Stigma Films. It is part of Berger's overall deal with Netflix; his All Quiet on the Western Front was a massive hit for the streamer, becoming one of its most-streamed non-English-language films of all time.

The Ballad of a Small Player is slated to begin filming in Asia this summer; no release date has yet been set. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.