Madonna has confirmed that the film about her life she spent years developing has been scrapped.
The Queen of Pop told Interview magazine that the project collapsed after a falling-out with Universal Pictures over its budget.
Her account arrives as Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic, closes in on $1 billion at the worldwide box office.
“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 magazine.
“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.”
“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 (via Interview)
According to Madonna, the studio balked at the scale she had in mind, and a plan to cut costs by shooting in Serbia failed to win executives over.
“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,” she 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,” Madonna said.
Universal Pictures won a multi-studio auction for the rights to Madonna‘s life story in 2021, with the singer set to co-write and direct, according to Variety.
Studio chief Donna Langley secured the script, and Amy Pascal came aboard as producer, the outlet reported.
Screenwriters, including Diablo Cody and Erin Cressida Wilson, were attached at different stages.
Julia Garner, the Ozark and Inventing Anna actress, won the lead role in 2022 after an audition process that Variety reported included a singing and dancing “boot camp.”
Contenders for the part had included Florence Pugh, the report added.
Several rewrites followed before the film was shelved in 2023, Variety reported, as Madonna‘s longtime manager Guy Oseary steered her toward the career-spanning Celebration Tour.
Madonna said she was “in limbo” when the film fell apart, before Netflix approached her about 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,” she told Interview.
“Don’t ask,” Madonna added.
“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.”
Madonna (via Interview)
Adapting her life for Netflix proved its own long road.
“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,” Madonna said.
Netflix‘s autobiographical series is being developed with director Shawn Levy, under his exclusive TV deal at the streamer, The Hollywood Reporter reported in May 2025.
That project is a fresh start, unconnected to the Universal film, and Garner is not formally attached.
The shelved movie has since resurfaced in fictional form: Madonna and Garner filmed a two-episode arc for the second season of Apple TV+‘s The Studio, in which a Madonna biopic heads to the Venice Film Festival.
Madonna is no stranger to the film business.
She won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy for playing Eva Perón in 1996‘s Evita, and has appeared in Desperately Seeking Susan, Dick Tracy and A League of Their Own.
She has directed twice, with 2008‘s Filth and Wisdom and 2011‘s W.E., the latter winning her a second Golden Globe for the song Masterpiece.
Her last leading film role, in 2002‘s Swept Away, directed by then-husband Guy Ritchie, was a critical and commercial failure.
As a recording artist, she is certified by Guinness World Records as the best-selling female artist of all time, with more than 400 million records sold.
She is also the first female artist to gross more than $1 billion from touring.
Her Celebration Tour closed in 2024 with a free concert on Rio de Janeiro‘s Copacabana beach that drew around 1.6 million people.
Most of her recorded catalog sits with Warner Music Group, which struck a “career-spanning” partnership with the singer in 2021.
Meanwhile, Michael is now the highest-grossing music biopic ever, according to Lionsgate.
The Lionsgate film, distributed internationally by Universal, overtook Bohemian Rhapsody earlier in June, and recent figures put its worldwide total at around $960 million – within reach of $1 billion.
Few music biopics come close to those numbers.
Box Office Mojo figures cited by MBW put 2022‘s Elvis third at $288.7 million, ahead of Straight Outta Compton at $202.2 million, Rocketman at roughly $195 million, Bob Marley: One Love at $180.8 million and the Bob Dylan film A Complete Unknown at $140 million.
No music biopic outside the top two has crossed $300 million.
For the music industry, the box office is only part of the return: Michael has driven a sharp surge in Michael Jackson‘s streaming, and most of that windfall flows to Sony Music Group, which holds a 50% stake in his recorded-music and publishing catalog.
Madonna, meanwhile, has channeled the experience into music.
Her new album, Confessions on a Dance Floor: Part II — a sequel to her 2005 Confessions on a Dance Floor — reunites her with producer Stuart Price.
Due on July 3, it marks her first album of new material since 2019‘s Madame X.
“I reached out to Stuart because I thought the world is in a very dark place and people need to dance,” she told Interview.Music Business Worldwide
