Ever since her ’80s anthem “Material Girl,” you would think that money is no object for Madonna. Perhaps that’s why the pop icon ran into trouble when financial issues with Universal Pictures seemingly derailed her long-anticipated biopic, which was set to star Julia Garner.
While speaking with Interview Magazine about her upcoming album, “Confessions II,” the singer opened up about behind-the-scenes challenges that prevented the film — one she had planned to direct — from moving forward with the studio.
“I was supposed to make a movie about my life. I worked on my script for two years and spent two years at Universal Studios with the line producers doing budgeting and casting. We had a falling out, me and Universal, regarding budget because I needed — I’ve had an extraordinary life. I’ve had a huge life, so I needed a big budget,” Madonna explained, noting that she wasn’t interested in having the biopic become an indie-level production.
“They couldn’t get their heads around it,” she added of Universal. “I found a way to make it for less money in Serbia, but I don’t think they were into the idea of — I don’t know. Maybe they just didn’t believe in me. One of their first reactions was, ‘We don’t believe you’d stay in Serbia more than four days.’ And I said, ‘Did you read the script?’”
After the project stalled, Madonna said the future of her biopic remained uncertain until Netflix approached her with an alternative solution: an offer to turn her life story into a series.
“That was a whole other long process,” she said, “because I couldn’t use the script I had with Universal unless I bought it from them for an extortionist’s price, even though I wrote it.”
“That’s just the way it goes,” the singer added. “I started trying to understand how making a series would work. It’s a very, very different process. You have to meet a lot of writers and find the right showrunner, and I couldn’t find one. This went on for another eight or nine months. I was like, ‘Good thing I have another job because I need to work, I need to create. I need to do what I was put on this earth to do.’”
Universal’s untitled Madonna biopic was first announced in 2020, with Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody attached as co-writer, though she was later replaced by “Secretary” writer Erin Cressida Wilson. However, the project was ultimately shelved in 2023 without any explanation from the studio.
Several actors — including Florence Pugh, Odessa Young, Emma Laird, Alexa Demie and Julia Garner — were reportedly considered for the lead role before the latter told W Magazine last year that she’s set to play the Queen of Pop in an unknown project that’s “a work in progress.”
While the fate of a Madonna movie remains uncertain, a version of her life story is expected to see the light of day in the upcoming season of “The Studio.” According to Variety, sources say Madonna will appear in a two-episode arc of Apple TV’s Hollywood satire, drawing inspiration from the real-life collapse of her biopic to explore the challenges of modern moviemaking.
The appearance would mark Madonna’s first TV role in more than two decades, following her 2003 cameo on “Will & Grace.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.celebrity.land ’
