{"id":342152,"date":"2025-12-11T01:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T01:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/342152\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T01:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T01:59:07","slug":"johnny-depp-co-producers-blocking-u-s-release-of-master-and-margarita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/342152\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny Depp Co-Producers Blocking U.S. Release of Master and Margarita"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tRussian American director Michael Lockshin heard along with the rest of the world Wednesday that\u00a0Johnny Depp<\/a>\u00a0is set to produce the\u00a0first English-language feature<\/a>\u00a0adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov\u2019s masterpiece novel\u00a0The Master and Margarita, with the announcement made at the Red Sea Film Festival<\/p>\n

\n\tBut Lockshin knows well Depp\u2019s co-producers, Svetlana Migunova-Dali and Grace Loh, because he\u2019s locked in an ongoing legal battle with them via his sales company, Luminosity Pictures, in the California Central District<\/a> Court.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Wednesday, Lockshin told The Hollywood Reporter Migunova-Dali and Grace Loh have been trying to block a U.S. release of his own Russian-language adaptation of Bulgakov\u2019s masterpiece produced by Len Blavatnik<\/a>. \u201cI have met with them previously because they (Dali and Loh) have been trying to ban the release of my film in English language territories,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\n\tLockshin\u2019s Russian-language movie adaptation was shot in 2021, but only got a release in Russia<\/a> in January 2024 in the wake of that country\u2019s war with Ukraine, and quickly became a box office hit in that territory, despite a political backlash from Russian authorities.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI am a dissident (in Russia). The movie was ultimately censored because of its politics, but became a huge hit with critics and audiences,\u201d Lockshin recalled. But, despite getting a release for his Russian-language adaptation in Europe, Lockshin insists he has been hampered in securing a U.S. distribution deal by repeated cease-and-desist letters sent out by Migunova-Dali and Loh as they claim to hold the exclusive English language rights to adapt Bulgakov\u2019s novel.<\/p>\n

\n\tLockshin added Luminosity Pictures contends the sales rights for the Russian novel \u2014 written in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1940 during Stalin\u2019s regime \u2014 are in the public domain, and that would allow the Russian language movie adaptation to be released stateside. <\/p>\n

\n\tUntil his legal battle with Migunova-Dali and Loh is resolved, U.S. distributors are expected to be reluctant to acquire his Russian language movie. \u201cWe haven\u2019t got a court order to resolve this, and that\u2019s why, although there\u2019s a huge audience in the U.S. who want to see it, we haven\u2019t reached them yet,\u201d Lockshin explained.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll of which has left Lockshin scratching his head to explain why Depp\u2019s co-producers would want to stop the release of a Russian-language literary adaptation in the U.S. market ahead of production on their English language version.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf anything, he argues a Russian-language version of The Master and Margarita would be expected to help build buzz for an eventual English language version. \u201cI\u2019ve always said I\u2019m totally fine and happy for any English language adaptation to be made. I just don\u2019t understand why you\u2019re trying to ban my movie coming out,\u201d Lockshin added.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Russian-American director has yet to reach out to Depp and his team, as news of their participation has only recently been made public as the news came out on Wednesday. Lockshin assumes Depp doesn\u2019t have \u201cthe full picture,\u201d which includes knowing Migunova-Dali and Loh are attempting to ban his movie being release in the U.S. market.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy speculation would be that he (Depp) doesn\u2019t know about this, and that, if he knows about it and when he finds out, like any artist working in film, he would be against it. Because you don\u2019t ban a movie from coming out. This is not what the artist spirit is about,\u201d Lockshin said.<\/p>\n

\n\tLegal representatives for Migunova-Dali and Loh were not available for comment after THR reached out. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian American director Michael Lockshin heard along with the rest of the world Wednesday that\u00a0Johnny Depp\u00a0is set to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[2356,88,32394,171580,1206],"class_list":["post-342152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-california","tag-entertainment","tag-johnny-depp","tag-len-blavatnik","tag-russia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}