Johnny Depp to Tackle Bulgakov's Master and Margarita in a Daring New Adaptation

Johnny Depp is easing back into the film world, and his next swing is not exactly a layup: he is producing the first English-language feature adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. If you know the novel, you already get why that is a big, weird, ambitious choice. If you do not: it is part political satire, part supernatural fever dream, and yes, there is a very opinionated talking cat.

The project

Depp announced the film at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Saudi Arabia, where he showed up in person repping his outfit IN.2 Film. No director yet, no casting yet, but the plan is to start shooting in 2026. The producing team is surprisingly stacked, including a posthumous executive producer credit you do not see every day.

• Producers: Johnny Depp (via IN.2 Film), Svetlana Dali, Grace Loh, IN.2's Stephen Deuters, IN.2's Stephen Malit
• Collaborating company: Tribune Pictures
• Executive producers: Nevin Shalit, Andrew Fourman, World Visions' Konstantin Elkin, Tribune Pictures' Michael Paletta, the late Michael Lang

That last name is the deep-cut production detail: Lang passed away in 2022, so his EP credit will be posthumous.

So, what exactly is The Master and Margarita?

Bulgakov wrote it between 1928 and 1940 under Stalin, and it did not see official publication until long after he died. The story jumps between two tracks: 1930s Moscow and ancient Jerusalem under Pontius Pilate. In Moscow, the devil strolls into town with a small chaos squad that includes a sharp-tongued, gun-happy black cat named Behemoth and other miscreants, and they proceed to expose and torment the city's corrupt cultural elite. Meanwhile, a writer known only as the Master, who has penned a novel about Jesus and Pilate, is locked in a psychiatric hospital, and his lover, Margarita, makes a soul-risking bargain to pull him back from oblivion. Along the way: a decadent ball hosted by Satan, a reimagining of Judas' fate, and a love story that ties the two timelines together.

The book has been adapted plenty in other languages for film, TV, and theater, but this is the first time it is being built as an English-language feature.

Where Depp goes next

Outside of this, he has two acting gigs lined up. Lionsgate's Day Drinker pairs him with Penelope Cruz, directed by Marc Webb; cameras started rolling in April. Plot-wise, it is about a mysterious drifter who forms an unexpected connection with a bartender grieving the loss of her partner, and their lives knot together in messy ways. After that, Depp is set to play Ebenezer Scrooge in Paramount's new take on A Christmas Carol, directed by Ti West.

Bottom line: Master and Margarita is a huge swing with a lot of moving parts and a built-in cult following. The director and cast will make or break it. The clock starts now for 2026.