Has your cat got what it takes to star in The Master and Margarita?

Google has announced a casting call to find a cat to star in its upcoming collaboration with Mosfilm, “The Master and Margarita: I was there”. This project will see 360º films of readings from Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel (written between 1928 and 1940 and published in 1966).

Cat owners in Moscow, St Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Vladivostok are invited to take part by posting a picture of their cat on social media sites VKontakte or Instagram with the hashtag #котММ (#kotMM). Submissions are open until 25 October.

The cat will join an array of celebrities and members of the public chosen through internet auditions, who will read excerpts from the book. The readings will come to life with the help of YouTube 360º and chroma keying, a special effects process that layers two images or video streams together.

The project has been timed to coincide with the 125th anniversary of the author’s birth. Casting will take place during September and October, while the readings themselves will be held in eight major Russian cities, including Moscow, St Petersburg, Kazan, and Vladivostok, as well as Tel Aviv in Israel.

“The Master and Margarita. I was there” is organised by the team behind other online reading marathons such as Chekhov Alive.

Source: Afisha (in Russian)