Pop icon Madonna has revealed that a disagreement with Universal Pictures over the budget of her planned biopic ultimately led to the project being shelved.
Universal had won the rights to develop the film after a multi-studio bidding war in 2021. Madonna was attached to co-write and direct the project, which had several screenwriters associated with it over the years, including Diablo Cody and Erin Cressida Wilson. Ozark actress Julia Garner was cast as Madonna in 2022 following a widely publicised audition process.
The singer-songwriter made the revelation in a conversation with Interview magazine.
“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,” Madonna told the publication. “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. You know what I mean?”
According to Madonna, the studio struggled to justify the scale of funding she believed was necessary to tell her story.
“Maybe they just didn’t believe in me,” Madonna said. “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?’ My whole life has been survival. I’m not going there for a holiday. But anyway, I was in limbo when that fell apart, and then Netflix reached out to make a series. That was a whole other long process, 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. Don’t ask.”
Madonna said she had attempted to reduce production costs by exploring the possibility of filming in Serbia, but the effort failed to bridge differences with the studio.
Following the collapse of the film project, the singer explored developing her life story as a television series with Netflix. However, she said that process also proved challenging.
“That’s just the way it goes,” she continued. “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.'”
According to previous reports, the abandoned biopic was expected to chronicle Madonna’s journey from her early years in Michigan to her rise as an artist in New York during the 1980s, culminating with the release of her acclaimed 1998 album Ray of Light.
Netflix is currently developing an autobiographical series based on Madonna’s life under producer Shawn Levy’s television deal with the streamer. Garner is not attached to the series.
Although the Universal film never moved forward, the concept of a Madonna biopic will appear in fictional form in the second season of Apple TV+ comedy series The Studio. Madonna and Garner reportedly filmed scenes for the show at the Venice Film Festival last year, with one storyline revolving around a Madonna biopic starring Garner premiering at the festival.