<\/p>\n
Madonna revealed her planned biopic<\/a> was scrapped because she had a \u201cfalling out\u201d with Universal Studios over the budget. <\/p>\n \u201cI 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,\u201d she told Interview magazine <\/a>editor-in-chief Mel Ottenberg in a cover story published Monday.<\/p>\n Madonna explained she \u201cneeded a big budget\u201d so the film could portray her \u201cextraordinary life,\u201d but Universal \u201ccouldn\u2019t get their heads\u201d around that and wouldn\u2019t cough up more money.<\/p>\n Madonna (seen above on the cover of Interview magazine\u2019s Summer 2026 story) confirmed her biopic was scrapped due to budget issues. Interview<\/span><\/p>\n The singer (seen above) said she had \u201ca falling out\u201d with Universal Studios over financing the film. Interview<\/span><\/p>\n Madonna (pictured above) said she wanted \u201ca big budget,\u201d but Universal wouldn\u2019t cough up more money. Interview<\/span><\/p>\n However, the 67-year-old \u2014\u00a0who was set to direct the movie and be portrayed by \u201cOzark\u201d star Julia Garner<\/a> \u2014\u00a0said she found a way to make the biopic for less money in Serbia \u2014 but that didn\u2019t go over well with Universal.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe they just didn\u2019t believe in me,\u201d she said. \u201cOne of their first reactions was, \u2018We don\u2019t believe you\u2019d stay in Serbia more than four days.\u2019 And I said, \u2018Did you read the script?\u2019 My whole life has been survival. I\u2019m not going there for a holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u201cMaterial Girl\u201d singer said she \u201cwas in limbo\u201d when the biopic plans fell apart, but there was a glimmer of hope when Netflix reached out about making a limited series<\/a> based on her life.<\/p>\n Madonna said she found a way to make the biopic for less money in Serbia, but Universal wouldn\u2019t allow it. Interview<\/span><\/p>\n The Grammy Award winner revealed Netflix also approached her about making a limited series based on her life, but she had to pay \u201can extortionist\u2019s price\u201d to buy the script from Universal. Interview<\/span><\/p>\n She said trying to make the TV series work was \u201ca very, very different process.\u201d Interview<\/span><\/p>\n Unfortunately, Madonna couldn\u2019t use the script she wrote for Universal unless she \u201cbought it from them for an extortionist\u2019s price.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s just the way it goes,\u201d she shared. \u201cI started trying to understand how making a series would work. It\u2019s a very, very different process. You have to meet a lot of writers and find the right showrunner, and I couldn\u2019t find one.\u201d<\/p>\n Madonna said another eight or nine months passed before the plans for the Netflix series fell apart, at which point she decided to focus on her music career instead. <\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018Good 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,’\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n Page Six has reached out to Universal for comment.<\/p>\n After plans for the show fell apart, Madonna (seen above) said she decided to instead focus on making her new album. Interview<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was like, \u2018Good thing I have another job because I need to work, I need to create,’\u201d she stated. Interview<\/span><\/p>\n The Madonna biopic cast Garner, 32, in the lead role in 2022 after a grueling singing and dancing\u00a0bootcamp battle<\/a>\u00a0against other actresses.<\/p>\n Two years later, Madonna spoke out against Hollywood producers who were allegedly telling her to scale down\u00a0the project,<\/a> declaring she wouldn\u2019t make herself \u201csmaller.\u201d<\/p>\n After the film was scrapped, a friend of Madonna\u2019s told Page Six she wanted a \u201cgrittier\u201d script<\/a>, while Universal preferred it to be \u201cpop and light,\u201d which led to a \u201cstalemate.\u201d<\/p>\n The insider claimed will make the biopic \u201csomeday,\u201d but she\u2019s \u201caware that she might have to recast if the actors aren\u2019t available.\u201d<\/p>\n In April, Madonna and Garner filmed scenes for Apple TV\u2019s \u201cThe Studio\u201d Season 2 that poked fun at the canceled biopic. They were seen recreating the 1984 \u201cLike a Virgin\u201d music video on a gondola in Venice.<\/p>\n Julia Garner was supposed to star in the Madonna biopic before the film was scrapped. Interview<\/span><\/p>\n Sources previously told Page Six Madonna (seen above) wanted the biopic to have a \u201cgrittier\u201d script, but Universal preferred it to be \u201cpop and light.\u201d Interview<\/span><\/p>\n For now, Madonna is focused on her upcoming 15th studio album, \u201cConfessions II,\u201d <\/a>which comes out July 3. Her last album, \u201cMadame X,\u201d was released seven years ago.<\/p>\n In the Interview magazine story, Madonna said she made the album when she was dealing with a lot in her personal life, including the deaths of her brother, Christopher Ciccone,<\/a> and her stepmother, Joan Ciccone<\/a>, whom Madonna said she \u201chad a very traumatic relationship throughout my entire childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI came back and forth a couple of times and then I said, \u2018OK, this is right. This feels good. So unless Netflix is going to call me tomorrow with a writer I like, I\u2019m going to start going down this road,’\u201d Madonna said.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, in the middle of the process, more than like 75 percent of the way through, we found the writer and I was like, \u2018I can\u2019t turn back now. I have to move this up a bit,’\u201d she added. \u201cSo that\u2019s what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n Garner and Madonna (seen above) filmed scenes for \u201cThe Studio\u201d Season 2 in Venice, Italy to poke fun at the canceled biopic. madonna\/Instagram<\/span><\/p>\n The duo (pictured above) was seen recreating the 1984 \u201cLike a Virgin\u201d music video on a gondola in Venice. madonna\/Instagram<\/span><\/p>\n Madonna also said she feels that the tragic life events that inspired her album are\u00a0like the script of her scrapped film.<\/p>\n \u201cIt begins with death and it ends with death, but there\u2019s all this life in between,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n \u201cParadoxical subjects, obviously, but death is a part of life. It just felt like I had a lot to get off my chest.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source pagesix.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Madonna revealed her planned biopic was scrapped because she had a \u201cfalling out\u201d with Universal Studios over the budget. \u201cI 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,\u201d she told Interview […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2470851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[383102,362230,24003,21963,21912,21800,29901,330806],"class_list":["post-2470850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-biopic","tag-biopics","tag-celebrity-news","tag-madonna","tag-movies","tag-music","tag-singers","tag-universal-studios"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Madonna-reveals-why-biopic-starring-Julia-Garner-was-scrapped.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2470850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2470850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2470850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2470852,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2470850\/revisions\/2470852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2470851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2470850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2470850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2470850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}