‘I’ve had a huge life, so I needed a big budget’: Madonna says biopic was scrapped after ‘falling out’ with studio

Madonna says that the long-gestating movie about her life that she was personally overseeing was cancelled after she fell out with Hollywood studio Universal over the size of the film’s budget.

Speaking to Interview magazine, Madonna said: “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.”

The musician said that she proposed shifting production to Serbia to keep costs down, but the studio did not accept 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.’”

She added: “I said, ‘Did you read the script?’ My whole life has been survival. I’m not going there for a holiday.”

The project was first announced in 2020, with Madonna planning to direct a script by Young Adult writer Diablo Cody. “It’s essential to share the rollercoaster ride of my life with my voice and vision,” Madonna said at the time. It followed her criticism of a mooted film called Blond Ambition, about her early career, which Universal had acquired in 2017. “Why would Universal Studios want to make a movie about me based on a script that is all lies???” she had said in an Instagram post.

Julia Garner was cast in the lead role after a gruelling casting process, which had become known as “Madonna bootcamp”, but reports emerged in 2023 that the movie, which had the working title Who’s That Girl, had been scrapped.

Madonna has previously directed two feature films, both of which received one-star reviews from the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw: Filth and Wisdom, about a Ukrainian musician trying to make it in London, and WE, about Wallis Simpson and the former Edward VIII. She also has a string of acting credits, including Desperately Seeking Susan, Dick Tracy, Evita and The Next Best Thing.

In the interview, Madonna also said she had been unable to get a proposed Netflix series off the ground, as she was hampered by Universal’s ownership of the script she had written for the film. “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 … 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.”