{"id":791780,"date":"2026-07-29T18:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/791780\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T18:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T18:01:12","slug":"the-master-and-margarita-gets-u-s-theatrical-release-after-legal-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/791780\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Master and Margarita’ Gets U.S. Theatrical Release After Legal Battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tMichael Lockshin\u2019s Russian-language adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov\u2019s \u201cThe Master and Margarita<\/a>\u201d is finally getting a long-awaited U.S. theatrical release.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollowing a lengthy battle, Luminosity Pictures<\/a> are rolling the movie out Stateside from Sept. 18, Variety can confirm.<\/p>\n

\n\tBased on Bulgakov\u2019s seminal, semi-autobiographical work, \u201cThe Master and Margarita\u201d follows the story of a writer in 1930s Moscow. After being censored, he writes a new novel in which the Devil appears to wreak havoc on those who have wronged the author. It stars August Diehl, Yevgeny Tsyganov, Yuliya Snigir and Claes Bang, among others.<\/p>\n

\n\tLockshin completed the movie just before Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. By the time it was ready for release in Jan. 2024, its themes of censorship and resistance were deemed too controversial by the Kremlin, which criticized both Lockshin, who has been public in his support for Ukraine, and the movie and insisted on removal of scenes.<\/p>\n

\n\tDespite that, Lockshin\u2019s work saw huge box office in the country, becoming the highest-grossing 18+ release in Russian history. International distribution was delayed after sanctions against Russia saw the film caught up in complex legal wrangling, intensified by competing claims <\/a>by <\/a>self-proclaimed rights-holders<\/a> to Bulgakov\u2019s original text.<\/p>\n

\n\tThose issues have now been resolved to the extent the film, which has had releases in Germany, Austria, Sweden and Italy, among other territories, is finally set to hit U.S. screens. Lumonsity will release Lockshin\u2019s restored director\u2019s cut.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen we started working on the film, we couldn\u2019t have foreseen that a story about censorship and standing up for truth set in the 1930s would turn out to be so much about the present \u2013 in Russia and beyond it,\u201d said Lockshin. \u201cI\u2019m very grateful to the people who came on board and pushed forward to get this film out despite the geopolitical and legal issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLuminosity Pictures co-founder said Peter Hoffman said: \u201cFor more than 25 years, my companies have sought to finance and distribute a film adaptation of the extraordinary novel \u2018The Master and Margarita.\u2019 When colleagues gave me the opportunity to view Michael Lockshin\u2019s brilliant adaptation of this literary masterpiece, I immediately sought out the Russian producers to bring this unique film to audiences outside the Russian Federation, and they entrusted Luminosity Pictures with that opportunity. This has truly been a passion project for me, and everyone involved has poured their hearts into honoring Bulgakov\u2019s remarkable novel. We hope audiences are swept away by its romance, imagination, and timeless themes, and discover why this extraordinary story has captivated readers around the world for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLockshin directs from a screenplay he co-wrote with Roman Kantor. He is repped by 42\u2019s Josh Varney and Peter Dealbert, and by Gang, Tyre, Ramer, Brown & Passman.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film is produced by Ruben Dishdishyan, Leonard Blavatnik, Igor Tolstunov and Anatoly Akimenko.<\/p>\n

\n\tLuminosity was founded in 2023. As well as \u201cThe Master and Margarita\u201d the company is representing upcoming rom-com \u201cA Murder Uncorked,\u201d starring Emma Roberts and Lucas Bravo, and prison siege thriller \u201cEleven Days\u201d with Diego Luna, Taylor Kitsch and Jason Isaacs.<\/p>\n

\n\tCheck out the trailer for \u201cThe Master and Margarita\u201d below:<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Lockshin\u2019s Russian-language adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov\u2019s \u201cThe Master and Margarita\u201d is finally getting a long-awaited U.S. theatrical…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":791781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,336548,206,336549],"class_list":["post-791780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-luminosity-pictures","tag-movies","tag-the-master-and-margarita"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791780","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=791780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/791781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}