A budget dispute with Hollywood studio Universal Pictures has derailed Madonna's biopic.
Intended as a cinematic deep-dive into her journey from a small-town Michigan girl to global icon, the project collapsed when the studio refused to meet the heavy budget demand to tell Madonna’s life story. The singer-songwriter was set to co-write and direct the project.
Madonna, who delivered chart-topping hits such as "Like a Virgin", "Material Girl", "Vogue", "Like a Prayer" and "Hung Up", said she spent nearly two years developing the screenplay and working with the studio on casting and budgeting before the film was shelved.
"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 said in an interview.
The project was officially announced in 2021 after Universal won a competitive auction. Over the years, it attracted several high-profile collaborators, including screenwriters Diablo Cody and Erin Cressida Wilson. In 2022, Emmy-winning actor Julia Garner was cast as Madonna following an extensive audition process.
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Madonna said the studio struggled to justify the scale of the budget she felt was necessary to tell her story. According to the singer, she even explored the possibility of lowering production costs by shooting in Serbia, but the effort failed to convince studio executives.
“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."
Following the collapse of the film project, Madonna said she began exploring the possibility of adapting her life story into a television series after being approached by Netflix.
"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," she said.
According to reports, the now-shelved film would have traced Madonna's journey from her early years in Michigan through her emergence as an artist in New York during the 1980s, ending around the release of her acclaimed 1998 album "Ray of Light".
Netflix is currently developing an autobiographical series about the singer under producer Shawn Levy's television deal with the streamer.
Garner is no longer attached to the project.
While the Universal biopic never moved forward, Madonna and Garner are set to revisit the concept in fictional form in the second season of Apple TV+'s comedy series "The Studio", where a Madonna biopic serves as a key storyline.
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