Maybe it’s no shock that Madonna, who proudly boasted of loving the finer issues in hit single “Material Girl,” would have cash issues surrounding a biopic that by no means got here to fruition.
Throughout a sit-down with Interview, Madonna mentioned the truth that the film that she deliberate to direct about her life, which had Julia Garner hooked up to star, by no means moved ahead at Universal Pictures. Madonna is a Grammy-winning music icon recognized for such multi-platinum-selling albums as Like a Virgin, True Blue and Like a Prayer, along with an appearing profession that features A League of Their Personal and Evita.
“I was supposed to make a movie about my life,” Madonna instructed the publication. “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.”
She went on to notice that the movie may by no means have an indie-level manufacturing: “They couldn’t get their heads around it. 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?’ My whole life has been survival. I’m not going there for a holiday.”
Madonna defined that Netflix later linked together with her to make a series based on her life and career, however the matter was difficult because of the star not having the ability to use the script from the Common undertaking. In Could 2025, The Hollywood Reporter reported that producer Shawn Levy was working with Madonna on growing the restricted sequence.
“I was in limbo when that fell apart, and then Netflix reached out to make a series,” Madonna stated. “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.”
She 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.”
THR beforehand reported that Common’s Madonna film, which was first introduced in 2020, was put into turnaround in late 2022. Madonna labored on drafts of the script with Diablo Cody and Cressida Wilson, and THR reported that no model ever got here in beneath 180 pages, resulting in questions in regards to the movie’s potential size.
Final 12 months, Garner told the SmartLess podcast that the biopic was “supposed to still happen,” with the Emmy-winning actress calling herself “such a fan of Madonna’s.”
