He's already deep into preparing to make his untitled Elvis Presley biopic, but Baz Luhrmann already has his eye on a potential future project. He's scored the rights to Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master And Margarita.
The book is a fantastical and devastating satire of Soviet society, an audacious revision of the stories of Faust and Christ’s Crucifixion, and a love story that spans across space and time. Written in the darkest period of Stalin’s regime and banned during Bulgakov’s lifetime, a censored edition was finally published in the 1960s and instantly became a worldwide literary phenomenon.
"Stretching back almost 20 years, I’ve had an incredible connection with the story of The Master And Margarita and have long sought the rights to this extraordinary book," Luhrmann says in a statement carried by Deadline. "I’m thrilled to finally have the opportunity to do an interpretation of this groundbreaking work."
It'll have to wait at least until Luhrmann has finished the Elvis film (which starts shooting this February in Australia with Austin Butler and Tom Hanks starring), and he'll develop it as a possible directing gig.