Get the latest gossip

‘The Master and Margarita’ Heads to Court as Producers Block U.S. Release of Russian Blockbuster (EXCLUSIVE)

Sales company Luminosity Pictures has filed suit against two producers attempting to block the film's distribution in English-speaking territories.

The lawsuit, which was filed by sales agent Luminosity Pictures and shared with Variety, alleges that producers Svetlana Migunova-Dali and Grace Loh, who are planning their own English-language adaptation of the book, cannot prove legitimate ownership of the rights to the novel. With the director expecting a court date to be set in the coming weeks, producers Migunova-Dali and Loh are firing back, with their lawyer dismissing the case as a “sham” and insisting that “Luminosity should withdraw its frivolous complaint now before this blows up in their face.” Numerous attempts at adapting “The Master and Margarita” have been thwarted over the years, with Lockshin, a U.S. citizen who was raised in the Soviet Union, telling Variety he was fully aware that “Bulgakov’s novel has a reputation for being cursed and impossible to adapt.” Roman Polansky, Federico Fellini, Terry Gilliam and Baz Luhrmann are among the filmmakers who have reportedly tried and failed.

Get the Android app