I t was easy to understand why Edward Berger’s name was being bandied around in relation to the reinvention of 007, the director having shown himself to be more than capable of both extravagantly staged action (his Oscar-winning breakout All Quiet on the Western Front ) and knife-edge intrigue (his Oscar-winning follow-up Conclave ). He dismissed speculation at the time (with some mild annoyance ) and the job has since landed at the feet of Denis Villeneuve – but his latest, China-set gambling drama Ballad of a Small Player, adds flashy bombast to his résumé and helps to explain why even though he might have passed on Bond ( and recently Ocean’s too ), he’s in development on a Bourne.

Berger is a canny commercial director, confidently switching between genre, language and locat

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