Madonna Biopic Scrapped Over Universal Budget Dispute
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- Madonna said her biopic was cancelled after she fell out with Universal over the budget, telling Interview magazine: "I've had an extraordinary life, so I needed a big budget."
- Universal rejected Madonna's proposal to move production to Serbia to reduce costs, with Madonna saying the studio told her: "We don't believe you'd stay in Serbia more than four days."
- Julia Garner was cast in the lead role after a gruelling audition process dubbed "Madonna bootcamp," though reports in 2023 indicated the project — working title "Who's That Girl" — had been scrapped.
- The project was first announced in 2020, with Madonna set to direct a script by Diablo Cody, who wrote Young Adult.
- Netflix reached out to make a series, but Madonna said she couldn't use the script she had written for Universal unless she bought it back at what she called "an extortionist's price."
- Madonna previously directed Filth and Wisdom and WE, both of which received one-star reviews from the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw.
Why it matters: Madonna's account reframes the cancellation as a financial dispute, not a creative one — a studio unwilling to fund the scope of a pop icon's life story. The script is now trapped in a rights dispute with Universal, blocking a Netflix series adaptation and leaving Madonna without a path to tell her own story on her own terms.
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