\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been developing this script for about eight years and at some point, it\u2019s just ready and then the film kind of chooses you,\u201d Edward Berger said when he stepped into Deadline\u2019s Zurich Studio during the Zurich Film Festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe\u00a0Conclave\u00a0director admitted that he was ready to focus on something \u201cvery different\u201d after that film. \u201cBallad\u00a0feels very different to me, the script was ready and Colin [Farrell] was a big reason to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut also suddenly it felt more urgent than ever to me. I felt like it\u2019s a story that fits in its time and I wanted to tell that story right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe film, which is written by Rowan Joffe, is Farrell\u2019s first collaboration with Berger and the pair had been discussing the project for a number of years before it came to fruition. The project, which also stars Fala Chen and Tilda Swinton, sees Farrell play a reckless gambler who is running out of luck in Macau, the world\u2019s gambling capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a real sensory overload,\u201d said Berger about shooting in Macau. \u201cI was so blown away. I just wanted to shoot everywhere.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tHe added: \u201cIt\u2019s a beautifully, visually rich city that we haven\u2019t really seen on film \u2013 not much anyway in Western cinema.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBerger said that working on live casino floors was a particular challenge for the production because they knew that if a high-rolling gambler wanted to come in and play while they were shooting, they would have to stop filming. \u201cWe only cost money, we don\u2019t pay money \u2013 or not much \u2013 so when high rollers come on, you\u2019re out. So, you have to be quite nimble and flexible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen pressed about the film\u2019s soundtrack, which features big, bombastic music from composer Volker Bertelmann, Berger said inspiration \u201cusually comes from actors or the story.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cYou watch Colin and you go \u2018Wow, this needs this type of music\u2019, because we want to score whatever is going on inside his stomach, same with camera or the production design \u2013 it\u2019s all to support Colin\u2019s performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tHe continued: \u201cWe have a dark story. It\u2019s a tale of addiction and a tale of redemption\u2026where a man who is spiritually empty is in search of some kind of higher purpose or meaning in life and hopefully he does find it. But that is a dark story and I wasn\u2019t really interested in telling a dark movie about a dark character, that\u2019s why I called it pop opera because it also mirrors, first of all the place but also Colin Farrell, who plays an exuberant, flamboyant Irishman pretending to be a British Lord. That itself comes with a bit of fun and some pop, so that needed to find its way into the music, the production design, the camera and the entire feel of the film.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tBerger also teased his next project, A24 drama\u00a0The Riders, which he is gearing up to shoot in February 2026. That project, which stars Brad Pitt, will shoot in Ireland, Greece, Brussels and Amsterdam.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a big odyssey for the character,\u201d he said. \u201cIt takes place in the 1980s and Brad is the main character. He picks up his daughter from the airport, expecting his wife as well but she doesn\u2019t show up. Deep down inside, he knowns something terrible has happened \u2013 something emotionally terrible \u2013 and he goes on the odyssey with his daughter to look for his wife. It\u2019s a wonderfully, beautiful dissection of this character\u2019s masculinity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tCheck out the video above.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019ve been developing this script for about eight years and at some point, it\u2019s just ready and then…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96957,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[13243,9441,9442,18,117,19,17,327,62181,9446,62182,58248],"class_list":{"0":"post-96956","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ballad-of-a-small-player","9":"tag-colin-farrell","10":"tag-edward-berger","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-movies","16":"tag-the-riders","17":"tag-zurich-film-festival","18":"tag-zurich-studio","19":"tag-zurich-summit"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96956\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}