‘Ballad of a Small Player' First Look: Colin Farrell Is a Gambler on the Run in Edward Berger's Latest
Berger recently directed the popular 'Conclave' and first helmed history-making 'All Quiet on the Western Front.' Fala Chen, Deanie Ip, Alex Jennings, and Tilda Swinton also star in 'Ballad of a Small Player,' which is adapted from Lawrence Osborne's novel. Rowan Joffe ('The American,' 'Brighton Rock') wrote the script.
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The synopsis reads: 'When his past and his debts start to catch up with him, a high-stakes gambler laying low in Macau encounters a kindred spirit who might just hold the key to his salvation.'
Berger, Mike Goodridge, and Matthew James Wilkinson produce the feature, which was announced in April 2024. Berger will next direct Brad Pitt in another novel adaptation, this time for Tim Winton's 'The Riders.' The 'Bones and All' scribe David Kajganich, who's also writing the Zendaya-led Ronnie Spector biopic 'Be My Baby' for A24, will adapt the book. 'The Riders' follows Fred Scully (Pitt), who, after traveling Europe with his wife, Jennifer, and seven-year-old daughter, Billie, purchases a farmhouse in rural Ireland. Jennifer and Billie then return to Australia to finalize their affairs, only for Billie to return to Ireland alone after traveling across the globe, with Jennifer now missing. Fred is left to make sense of his wife's disappearance in a story that takes a mystical turn. A24 landed the film after a competitive situation, as IndieWire can share.
The feature is a reunion for Berger and producer Ridley Scott: Kajganich brought the novel to Scott's Scott Free banner more than a decade ago, while Berger worked with Scott Free TV on AMC's 'The Terror' with creator Kajganich.
Meanwhile, 'Ballad of a Small Player' lead Farrell is starring in 'A Big Bold Beautiful Journey' opposite Margot Robbie, and might return for a possible 'The Penguin' Season 2. 'The Penguin' recently received a slew of Emmy nominations, although a Season 2 has yet to be set at HBO Max.
Netflix will premiere 'Ballad of a Small Player' later this year. Check out the first look below.
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Los Angeles Times
21 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
This week, we remember a few icons and visit our happy place with ‘Happy Gilmore 2'
Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who is feeling nostalgic after several celebrity deaths. Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Ozzy Osbourne, Chuck Mangione and Hulk Hogan died this week, and if you were alive in the '80s, you're familiar with how each shaped music, television and pop culture. Warner is best remembered for playing Theodore 'Theo' Huxtable on 'The Cosby Show.' As the 'engaging, fun-loving teen who also got into a variety of scrapes in the Huxtable household,' Theo was a highlight of Warner's career, earning him an Emmy nomination in 1986, Times senior writer Greg Braxton wrote in an assessment of the actor's career. As for Osbourne, depending on the generation you grew up in, he was either one of your favorite heavy metal vocalists or one of your favorite TV dads (perhaps both). Beginning in 2002, the Prince of Darkness starred in MTV's 'The Osbournes,' a reality show that featured his family — wife Sharon, daughter Kelly and son Jack — and their everyday antics. It pioneered the celebrity reality TV genre, and Osbourne broke the TV dad mold by showing us that you can curse at your family with love. Meanwhile, Mangione, the prolific jazz musician, also left his mark on television after his hit song 'Feels So Good' became a running gag on the animated series 'King of the Hill' — he even lent his voice to the show for several episodes. (The revived series will return in August.) Then there's Hogan, who will be remembered both as a self-made celebrity and controversial figure. He helped lift professional wrestling to an entertainment juggernaut with 'Hulkamania,' but his use of a racial slur led to WWE terminating its 30-year association with him (though he was reinstated to their hall of fame in 2018). Later, like Osbourne, he would get his own reality show, VH1's 'Hogan Knows Best,' but it was canceled after a series of personal events, including Hogan's divorce and a car crash involving his son. It all might leave you feeling a bit wistful and wanting to watch clips of their memorable moments. But if you want to experience some nostalgia and go to a happy place, a comedic cultural touchstone has returned. In this week's Screen Gab, director Kyle Newacheck drops by to discuss Netflix's 'Happy Gilmore 2,' the sequel to the original comedy film that was nearly 30 years in the making. Must-read stories you might have missed Commentary: 'South Park' season opener puts Trump in bed with Satan and has Paramount on its knees: Comedy Central's animated series couldn't have returned at a better time. The season-opening episode is brutal in its treatment of Paramount, CBS and President Trump. 'Happy Gilmore' is back for another round, as are Adam Sandler and his longtime collaborator: Tim Herlihy has had a lasting and prolific creative partnership with Adam Sandler, the star of Netflix's 'Happy Gilmore 2,' which he co-wrote with the actor. De-aged stars, cloned voices, resuscitated dead icons: AI is changing the art and business of acting: AI isn't hovering at the edges of acting anymore. It has reshaped faces, smoothed dialogue and fast-tracked everything from dubbing to reshoots. And its reach is growing. Commentary: When 'Love Island,' 'Summer I Turned Pretty' have to tell fans to back off, should we cry or clap?: A billion-dollar industry is failing to protect the very people who built it in the first place. Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' (Paramount+) The Trekkiest of the 21st century 'Star Trek' series — its very name comes from the Capt. James T. Kirk (William Shatner) speech that runs over the titles of what is now officially called 'The Original Series' — is back for its third season, which began earlier this month. Set in the years before Kirk's starship embarked on its five-year mission, this Enterprise comes with charmingly conceived, wholly convincing younger versions of characters we know well — including Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding) and Scotty (Martin Quinn) — and fuller versions of characters who never got much space on 'TOS,' like Number One (Rebecca Romijn) and Nurse Chapel (Jess Bush). Above all, there are Anson Mount's heroically haired Capt. Pike, revived from the series' initial pilot, and Ethan Peck's Spock, note perfect and yet very much his own Vulcan. Like its model, it's episodic in nature, allowing for event-packed seasons that make it seem like it's been running longer than it has (in a good way), and though it can turn dark and philosophical, it has a lightness of heart that leaves ample room for comedy — and love. — Robert Lloyd 'The Gringo Hunters' (Netflix) I find no joy in watching folks from other countries rounded up by state-sponsored agents, only to be detained with no due process and deported back home, or to who knows where. It's performative political theater, not entertainment, despite what ride-along raid hosts Dr. Phil McGraw and Kristi Noem want us to believe. But when American criminals are rounded up in Mexico and deported back to the U.S. without so much as a trial? That's unique and juicy drama. This Netflix Spanish-language drama follows members of an elite Mexican police unit (played by Harold Torres, Mayra Hermosillo and Manuel Masalva) who specialize in capturing foreign fugitives — mostly Americans — hiding from the U.S. legal system in Mexico. They are, according to one agent, 'bad hombres.' Executive produced by Brian Grazer and Ron Howard and directed by Adrián Grünberg ('Bandidos') and Natalia Beristáin, the 12-episode series was inspired by a 2022 Washington Post article that chronicled the work of a plainclothes, largely secretive investigative team in Tijuana who relied on intelligence from U.S. agencies to catch suspects, but ultimately, the fugitives are deported for breaking Mexican immigration law. 'Gringo Hunters' delivers a compelling, often darkly humorous narrative that travels through the mansions, barrios, political corridors and bustling businesses in and around Tijuana and Ensenada. The series offers a refreshing spin on the investigative procedural and an alternate view of what it looks like when Americans are targeted for deportation by a country that doesn't want them. — Lorraine Ali A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they're working on — and what they're watching Kyle Newacheck is no stranger to directing, with a long résumé in TV ('What We Do in the Shadows,' 'Workaholics') and film ('Murder Mystery,' 'Game Over, Man!'), nor to working with Adam Sandler, who stars in their latest collaboration, 'Happy Gilmore 2.' At the time 'Happy Gilmore' was released in 1996, it was a modest success, but it gained a cult following thanks in part to repeated screenings on basic cable. Like the first, the sequel was co-written by Sandler and his longtime collaborator Tim Herlihy, and many of their iconic characters have returned too, like Shooter McGavin (Christopher McDonald), Virginia (Julie Bowen) and Hal (Ben Stiller). The film also nods to the iconic actors from the original who are no longer with us, including Carl Weathers, Joe Flaherty and Richard Kiel. Here, the director talks about what it is like joining the project and working with Sandler and other members of the cast. 'Happy Gilmore' is a comedic cornerstone from the '90s. Do you remember the first time you watched it? What was it like to come on board for the sequel? I was 12 years old in 1996 when the movie came out, so I think the visuals are imprinted on the back walls of my brain. It was one of the first movies where I realized that movies didn't just 'appear' — somehow people are making these funny movies. After I watched the film, I picked up my grandfather's video camera in 1997 and began shooting funny videos with my friends. 'Happy Gilmore' was a movie that made all of my friends laugh. I remember everyone from my school constantly quoting lines and laughing together. Joining the sequel was a surreal moment for me, to say the least. The sequel brought back a lot of the original cast members who were so memorable, like Julie Bowen, Christopher McDonald and Ben Stiller, but you also see new faces in the 'Happy Gilmore' universe like Bad Bunny, John Daly and Benny Safdie. Do you have a favorite moment from filming or a scene where the OG cast and new cast came together? I loved filming the scene where Frank (Safdie) confronts Happy outside the batting cages. Benny and Adam have such great chemistry, and it was fun to see the two worlds collide. Happy stands against his Duster while Frank leans against his electric Rolls-Royce. The scene itself holds this cool subtext that, to me, reaches through the screen. Plus, Happy dissing Frank's breath is always gonna be funny to me. You've directed a couple of other films, but a lot of your work has been on television, including on 'Workaholics' and most recently 'What We Do in the Shadows.' How is directing a film like 'Happy Gilmore 2' different from television? My approach is similar in everything I make, attempting to get the truth of the scene while prioritizing humor. Sometimes I have a lot of resources to do that and sometimes I don't. What was it like getting notes from Adam Sandler on the film as you were working on it? I love working with Adam, a.k.a. Sandman. He is a true maverick. He is not only the star but also wrote the film as well as produced it. He likes to roll up his sleeves and do the work. Him and I share a deep love for the set, and we have a ton of fun out there and definitely challenge each other along the way. Collaboration is at the core of creation. What's your go-to comfort watch, the film or TV show you return to again and again? 'The Big Lebowski' [HBO Max]. Love it. It's another formative one for me — this time, I was in high school, about to graduate, and I played on the varsity bowling team. 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The Verge
22 minutes ago
- The Verge
Comcast's fix for streaming service overload is in your cable box
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Indianapolis Star
22 minutes ago
- Indianapolis Star
Netflix 'Wednesday' meal coming to Wendy's. See what's in it
Wendy's has a new meal in collaboration with the hit Netflix show "Wednesday." The company unveiled the Wednesday Meal of Misfortune, a limited-time meal centered around four mystery sauces called the "Dips of Dread," along with "Rest in 10-Piece" nuggets, small "Cursed & Crispy" fries, and a new Frosty flavor called "Raven's Blood." The items will all be served in custom packaging. The meal will coincide with the release of Season 2 of "Wednesday." The season premiere will be in two parts. Part 1 will debut Aug. 6 at 3 a.m. eastern time, and Part 2 will premiere Sept. 3 at 3 a.m. eastern time. Wendy's said two mystery dipping sauces come in each meal, adding that "fate will decide which of the four dips" customers receive. The four flavors are : "Don't bother asking which sauce you'll get – you must surrender to your destiny. Those brave enough to try them all must endure multiple visits," Wendy's said in the news release. The items will be available at restaurants and via the Wendy's app nationwide beginning Monday, Aug. 4. In Canada, customers can get the meal in restaurants or via the Wendy's app starting Monday, Aug. 11. The company said the Meal of Misfortune will also be available at Wendy's stores in Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and Guam.
