As Johnny Depp steadily makes his way back into Hollywood, he’s chosen something ambitious for his next project. According to reports, Depp will produce the first English-language feature adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita.
Who’s joining Depp in producing The Master and Margarita?
News about the adaptation hails from Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival, where Depp promoted the project in person while representing his production outfit IN.2 Film. Producers Svetlana Dali and Grace Loh also joined Depp for the announcement. In addition to the trio, IN. 2’s Stephen Deuters and Stephen Malit will also produce in collaboration with Tribune Pictures. Executive producers include Nevin Shalit, Andrew Fourman, World Visions’ Konstantin Elkin, Tribune Pictures’ Michael Paletta and the late Michael Lang.
Although no director has been announced, and casting details remain a mystery, we know the film is set to roll into production in 2026.
What’s Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita about?
While Depp’s adaptation is the first time Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita will be presented as an English-language feature, the novel is the subject of other film, TV, and theater projects in multiple languages. Penned in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1940, Bulgakov’s classic story “tells a story set in two time periods, set in two different locations: 1930s Moscow and Jerusalem in the time of Pontius Pilate. The focus of the story is the devil’s reappearance in Moscow, along with a talking cat named Behemoth and other unsavory characters who create havoc among the corrupt citizens of the city,” according to The Hollywood Reporter’s description.
For more details, here’s a description of Bulgakov’s novel, courtesy of Amazon:
The underground masterpiece of twentieth-century Russian fiction, Mikhail Bulgakov’s THE MASTER AND MARGARITA was written during Stalin’s regime and could not be published until many years after its author’s death. When the devil arrives in 1930s Moscow, consorting with a retinue of odd associates—including a talking black cat, an assassin, and a beautiful naked witch—his antics wreak havoc among the literary elite of the world capital of atheism. Meanwhile, the Master, author of an unpublished novel about Jesus and Pontius Pilate, languishes in despair in a pyschiatric hospital, while his devoted lover, Margarita, decides to sell her soul to save him. As Bulgakov’s dazzlingly exuberant narrative weaves back and forth between Moscow and ancient Jerusalem, studded with scenes ranging from a giddy Satanic ball to the murder of Judas in Gethsemane, Margarita’s enduring love for the Master joins the strands of plot across space and time.
What else is Johnny Depp working on?
Beyond The Master and Margarita, Depp plans to star in the Lionsgate feature Day Drinker, starring Penélope Cruz and directed by Marc Webb. The film began shooting in April, with the story focusing on an enigmatic stranger who forms an unlikely bond with a grieving bartender who lost her lover, their lives intertwining in unexpected ways. In addition to Day Drinker, Depp will star as Ebenezer Scrooge in Paramount’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol from director Ti West.
What do you think about Depp producing The Master and Margarita? Who would you cast in such a gripping tale? Let us know in the comments section below.
