Madonna has revealed that her long planned feature film about her life was abandoned after a disagreement with Universal Pictures over the scale of its budget, bringing an end to a project that had spent several years in development.
Speaking in a recent interview, the singer said the studio and filmmakers were unable to reach agreement on the resources required to tell her story on screen. Madonna explained that she spent two years writing the screenplay followed by another two years working with Universal on casting and budgeting before the project was ultimately shelved. She also said she proposed relocating production to Serbia in an effort to reduce costs, although the suggestion failed to revive the film.
The biopic was first announced in 2020 with Madonna attached to direct and co-write the screenplay. Diablo Cody initially collaborated on the script before Erin Cressida Wilson joined the project during its later stages of development. Julia Garner was cast to play Madonna after an extensive audition process that reportedly included demanding choreography and performance workshops designed to reflect the physicality of the role. Amy Pascal and Sara Zambreno were among the producers attached to the film.
Although the feature has now been abandoned, Madonna confirmed that she later explored adapting her life as a limited television series. That version also failed to move forward after rights complications surrounding the original screenplay and difficulties securing a showrunner. A separate Netflix limited series developed with producer Shawn Levy was subsequently announced, although Madonna indicated that project is no longer actively progressing as she has returned her attention to music.
The cancelled film would have marked Madonna’s third outing as a feature director following Filth and Wisdom in 2008 and WE in 2011. Across four decades she has built one of popular music’s most influential careers, with albums including Like a Prayer, Ray of Light and Confessions on a Dance Floor reshaping successive eras of pop while establishing her reputation for constant artistic reinvention.
Garner, meanwhile, has become one of the most acclaimed actors of her generation through Emmy-winning performances in Ozark and Inventing Anna. Her recent screen work has expanded into film with roles in The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Weapons, making the abandoned Madonna project one of the most closely watched unrealised casting decisions of recent years.
While the biopic will not reach cinemas in its original form, Madonna’s account offers a rare glimpse into the practical realities of mounting large scale films about living cultural figures, where creative ambition and commercial considerations must ultimately find common ground.
