The Master and Margarita - 2020
Nikolai Lebedev
In April 2018, the Board of Trustees of the Russian Фонд Кино [Fond Kino] or the Federal Fund for Economic and social support of the Russian Cinematography, chaired by Vladimir Tolstoy, Adviser to the President of the Russian Federation on Culture, has approved a list of 17 films for which it will support the production in 2018 and 2019. One of the selected projects is a screen adaptation of The Master and Margarita.
The film which the Fund will support will be realised by director Nikolai Lebedev (°1966) who also wrote the script. He's got a budget of 800 million rubles (10,5 million euro) and the shootings will start in April 2019. It is assumed that the picture will be released in December 2020.
Nikolai Lebedev, who has been, among others, the scriptwriter and director of the Russian version of the children's program Sesame Street, is one of the most successful directors in Russia. He often shows characters who are opposed to rules imposed from outside, such as in his films Wolfhound (2007), Legend No. 17 (2013) and The Crew (2016).
Nikolai Lebedev
Of course, we know by experience that we should be very careful with announcements of screen adaptations of The Master and Margarita, since so many plans have never been realised. But this project will be produced by heavyweights like Konstantin Ernst (Russian Channel One), Igor Tolstunov (Profit), Leonard Blavatnik (Amedia Production) and Ruben Dishdishyan (Mars Media). So we may have something to look forward to.
Ruben Dishdishyan
Updates
December 11, 2019
On August 16, 2019, at the start of the 7th Russian Short Film Festival in Kaliningrad, the chairman of the festival jury Igor Tolstunov, one of the co-producers of the planned film, spoke with the TASS news agency about his project. He said the shootings would start in March 2020 and that, although the casting has not yet been fully completed, «some Western actors will also participate in the project». However, he could not give any names.
February 10, 2020
There appear to be links between the producers of this film and the producers of a film being prepared in the United States. Click on the arrow below to read more about it.
May 10, 2021
In April 2021, the production company Mars Media announced that Nikolai Lebedev's film plans were canceled. According to Mars Media producer Ruben Dishdishyan, funding problems and the Covid-19 pandemic were the reasons for the decision. At the same time, however, Dishdishyan announced that the project had not been completely abolished. The company is now working on a film entitled Woland, which would be made by director Michael Lockshin. Click on the arrow below to read more about Michael Lockshin's film.