The Madonna biopic cost too much, that’s why it was abandoned

The singer reveals today that her disagreement with Universal was above all about the budget, considered too high to tell the story of her “extraordinary life”.

After Michael Jackson and the historic success of Michael at the box office, which superstar will be entitled to their biopic?

Madonna was in the running to take over. But the project was mysteriously abandoned. In an interview with the magazine Interviewthe Queen of Pop reveals that her film never saw the light of day due to a financial disagreement with Universal Pictures.

“I had to make a film about my life. I worked on the script for two years and spent two years at Universal with the producers establishing the budget and casting. Universal and I had a falling out over the budget, because I needed… I had an extraordinary life. I had a huge life, so I needed a big budget.“

Announced in 2021 after a battle between several studios, the film was to be co-written and directed by Madonna herself. Several writers took turns on the project, including Diablo Cody and Erin Cressida Wilson, while Julia Garner landed the role of the singer after a highly publicized audition process.

The feature film was to trace the star’s journey, from his childhood in Michigan to his artistic explosion in 1980s New York, up to the release of the album Ray of Light in 1998.

According to Madonna, Universal “couldn’t understand” the budget needed to tell this story. She even claims to have sought solutions to reduce costs, in particular by considering filming in Serbia.

“Maybe they just didn’t believe in me. One of their first reactions was to tell me: ‘We don’t think you would stay more than four days in Serbia.’ And I said, ‘Have you read the script? My whole life has been about survival. I’m not going there for vacation.”

After the film was abandoned, Netflix then came knocking on its door with another proposal: transform its story into a series. But here again, things got complicated.

“I couldn’t use the script I had written for Universal unless I bought it from them at an exorbitant price, even though I had written it myself. Don’t get me started on that…”

Visibly annoyed by the way things have turned out, Madonna wants to believe that her life will still be told one day on screen. The autobiographical series project is still in development at Netflix as part of the overall agreement signed with Shawn Levy. On the other hand, Julia Garner is no longer associated with this new version of the story.