It looks like the book that inspired the Rolling Stones song Sympathy For The Devil is going to be made into a feature film! We get the scoop from the legendary caves of yahoo:
Mikhail Bulgakov’s satanic novel “The Master and Margarita,” an inspiration for the Rolling Stones tune “Sympathy for the Devil,” is being turned into a movie, two decades after Roman Polanski attempted to bring it to the big screen. Los Angeles-based Stone Village Pictures has optioned the late Russian writer’s once-banned book in a deal potentially worth in the low seven figures if the project goes ahead.
“Master and Margarita” begins in pre-WWII Moscow, where the devil appears as a mysterious man who insinuates himself into a literary crowd. Amid a series of deaths and disappearances, the devil brings together the title characters, a despairing novelist and his devoted but married lover. The story shifts to the setting of the master’s rejected novel, Jerusalem in the time of Pontius Pilate, and then to a supernatural world where satanic forces have taken over Margarita’s life.
I am not a religious man any longer, but I enjoy a good devil film as much as anyone. Satan is an ancient and masterful rebel; he is an enemy as much as he is hero. Satan does what he wants, when he wants, regardless of the rules and prefers to follow the left hand path. In John Milton’s Paradise Lost Satan is quoted as saying “Better to reign in hell, then serve in Heav’n.’ This line causes the most ardent opponent of Satan to pause in contemplation, and sympathy. Satan is the enemy in Paradise Lost but Milton makes him out to be so heroic at times that you are left wondering who to cheer for. To show the commonality we share with man’s greatest foe was genius on the part of Milton; and much discussion in literary circles continues today on Satan as hero in Paradise Lost.
I have not had the chance to real Bulgakov’s work, but am certainly interested in seeing a film adaptation of The Master and Margarita. If this is the inspiration for Sympathy For The Devil, you can count me in. If the film is 1/4 as good as the song – it will still be outstanding.
Satan continues to inspire artists to do work in his name. Art would be damned without him and I look forward to this film about the most ancient of rebels. Hail Satan!
Satan is most certainly the enemy in the book.
Milton however portrays him in a very heroic manner. At different points in the book Milton takes this universally hated character and forces you to admire qualities about him. Milton brilliantly shows many sides to the villain and some of them certainly ring true with thoughts and opinions we have all had.
At points Satan does come off as a “good guy” and this is why so much discussion takes place about Satan in Paradise Lost to this day.
“…He is an enemy as much as he is hero.” Don’t you mean, ‘anti-hero’? By definition a hero is a good guy. By definition, Satan can’t be — except to Satanists.
Huh… Sounds interesting, but as a novelist myself I have a great deal to read as well, which I am editing right now for the second year. I’ll have to put this title on my *to read* list. Thanks guys!
Holy shit! This is quite possibly my favorite book ever! And Ron, the lover is Margarita, who is having an affair with The Master, the novelist who dared to write about Pontious Pilate. I HIGHLY suggest everyone reading this book, it’s a masterpiece.
There was talk before of making this with Johnny Depp in the role of Prof. Woland (satan) and Ricky Gervais as one of his assistants.
Ron, the novelist is the Master and his lover is Margareta.
That was a quotation, I did not write that. I am not certain if the love interest is male or female. I will have to read the book to find out same as thee!
Doug,
When you wrote, “a despairing novelist and his devoted but married lover.” Did you mean it is a man or a woman?
I have never read the novel and I am sure it is very well written.