Johnny Depp‘s comeback continues apace, with the actor set to produce the first English-language feature adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s masterpiece The Master and Margarita.
The news was announced at Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday. Depp appeared at the festival to promote the project that is backed by his production company IN.2 Film as well as producers Svetlana Dali and Grace Loh. IN.2’s Stephen Deuters and Stephen Malit will also produce. The film will be produced in collaboration with Tribune Pictures.
Executive producers on the project include Nevin Shalit, Andrew Fourman, World Visions’ Konstantin Elkin, Tribune Pictures’ Michael Paletta and the late Michael Lang.
No director is attached to the project and no casting details were revealed, though the film is set to go into production in late 2026.
Written in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1940, Bulgakov’s satirical and fantastical novel The Master and Margarita tells a story set in two time periods, set in two different locations: 1930s Moscow and Jerusalem in the time of Pontius Pilate. The focus of the story is the devil’s reappearance in Moscow, along with a talking cat named Behemoth and other unsavory characters who create havoc among the corrupt citizens of the city.
Though the Depp-led project is the first English-language feature adaptation, Bulgakov’s book has been adapted for film, TV and theater several times and in multiple languages.
Johnny Depp and IN.2 Film team announce The Master and Margarita at the Red Sea International Film Festival.
Red Sea International Film Festival.
Once one of Hollywood’s most in-demand actors, Depp’s film career stalled following his protracted and highly controversial legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard. Since 2019, the year Depp sued Heard for defamation over a 2018 Washington Post op-ed, the actor has only starred in the features Minamata (2020) and Jeanne du Barry (2023). He directed and produced Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness, the 2024 biopic of Amedeo Modigliani that starred Riccardo Scamarcio, Stephen Graham and Al Pacino.
Notably, Jeanne du Barry and Modì were partially backed by the Red Sea Film Foundation, the Saudi nonprofit behind the Red Sea Film Festival. Modì also received an awards night gala screening at Red Sea Film Festival in 2024.
Master and Margarita comes as Depp steps up his Hollywood return. The actor’s first mainstream project since Minamata, the Lionsgate feature Day Drinker, also starring Penélope Cruz and directed by Marc Webb, started shooting in Spain in April. In October, Depp signed on for Paramount’s new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The actor will play Ebenezer Scrooge in a film that has Ti West attached to direct.
Dec. 10, 9:10 a.m. A previous version of this story incorrectly identified Johnny Depp as starring in The Master and Margarita; he is only producing the feature. No casting announcements have been made.
