Master and Margarita U.S. release set after legal fight
Michael Lockshin’s Russian-language film will open in U.S. theaters Sept. 18 through Luminosity Pictures after distribution delays.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
The Master and Margarita U.S. release is finally on the calendar: Michael Lockshin’s Russian-language adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel will arrive in American theaters from Sept. 18, Variety reported, with Luminosity Pictures handling the rollout.
The film’s trip to U.S. screens has been anything but tidy. Variety reported that international distribution was held up by sanctions linked to Russia and by legal disputes involving rival claims to rights in Bulgakov’s original work.
When is The Master and Margarita coming to U.S. theaters?
Luminosity Pictures is set to release the film stateside beginning Sept. 18, according to Variety. The company will put out Lockshin’s restored director’s cut.
The movie adapts Bulgakov’s famed, partly autobiographical novel and centers on a writer in 1930s Moscow. After being censored, he begins another book, one in which the Devil turns up and causes chaos for the people who harmed him.
The cast includes August Diehl, Yevgeny Tsyganov, Yuliya Snigir and Claes Bang. Lockshin directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Roman Kantor.
Why was the U.S. release delayed?
Lockshin finished the movie shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine, Variety reported. By the time the film was ready for its Russian release in January 2024, its material about censorship and resistance had drawn criticism from the Kremlin.
According to Variety, the Kremlin criticized both the film and Lockshin, who has publicly supported Ukraine, and called for scenes to be removed. Even with that political pressure, the film became the highest-grossing 18+ release in Russian history, Variety reported.
The international rollout then hit another wall. Variety reported that sanctions against Russia created complicated distribution problems, while competing rights claims over Bulgakov’s text added to the legal tangle.
Those issues have been cleared enough for a U.S. theatrical release to proceed. The film has already been released in several other countries, including Germany, Austria, Sweden and Italy, according to Variety.
What did the filmmakers say?
Lockshin said the team could not have predicted that a story set in the 1930s about censorship and truth would feel so connected to the present in Russia and elsewhere. He thanked the people who helped move the film toward release despite political and legal problems.
Luminosity Pictures co-founder Peter Hoffman said his companies had been trying for more than 25 years to finance and distribute a screen version of The Master and Margarita. He said he pursued Lockshin’s adaptation after seeing it and worked with the Russian producers to bring it to audiences outside Russia.
The film’s producers are Ruben Dishdishyan, Leonard Blavatnik, Igor Tolstunov and Anatoly Akimenko. Lockshin is represented by 42’s Josh Varney and Peter Dealbert, along with Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman.
Luminosity Pictures was founded in 2023. Variety reported that the company is also representing the rom-com A Murder Uncorked, starring Emma Roberts and Lucas Bravo, and Eleven Days, a prison siege thriller with Diego Luna, Taylor Kitsch and Jason Isaacs.
This story draws on original reporting from Variety.