Madonna revealed that “a falling out” with Common Footage over the price range for her extremely publicized biopic led to the movie being shelved.
Talking with Interview, Madonna stated she spent a number of years growing the undertaking, writing the script, and dealing with producers at Common on all the things from budgeting to casting. However, she stated, “We had a falling out, me and Common, relating to price range.”
Because the pop icon pointedly put it: “I’ve had a rare life. I’ve had an enormous life, so I wanted an enormous price range. You understand what I imply?” She even claimed the studio “couldn’t get their heads round it.”
Madonna did say she seemed for methods to chop prices, together with one thought to maneuver the manufacturing to Serbia. However she stated Common Footage wasn’t into the thought. “Perhaps they only didn’t imagine me,” she stated. “One in all their first reactions was, ‘We don’t imagine you’d keep in Serbia greater than 4 days.’ And I stated, ‘Did you learn the script?’ My entire life has been survival. I’m not going there for a vacation.” (A rep for Common Footage stated not instantly return a request for remark.)
The Madonna biopic was revealed in 2020, with the singer connected to co-write and direct the movie. At varied factors, Madonna was engaged on the script with Oscar-winner Diablo Cody and screenwriter Erin Cressida. The movie even discovered a star in Ozark’s Julia Garner, who reportedly went by way of a pop star “boot camp” in the course of the audition course of.
Regardless of all that work, and the truth that music biopics stay closely bankable, the Madonna movie by no means got here to fruition (and no rationalization for it being shelved was ever given). In 2025, it appeared that the undertaking is perhaps revived as a Netflix collection, however Madonna instructed that course of hadn’t panned out both.
Within the new interview, she famous that she couldn’t use the script she wrote for the biopic except she “purchased it from [Universal] for an extortionist’s value.” Then there was the completely completely different artistic course of a restricted collection required versus a film.
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“You must meet plenty of writers and discover the suitable showrunner, and I couldn’t discover one,” Madonna stated. “This went on for one more eight or 9 months. I used to be like, ‘Good factor I’ve one other job as a result of I have to work, I have to create. I have to do what I used to be placed on this earth to do.’”
Nonetheless, the Madonna biopic has lived on in a number of alternative ways. Garner just lately appeared within the quick movie Madonna created to accompany her upcoming Confessions 2 album. (The movie is out now, however the album gained’t arrive till July 3.) And each Madonna and Garner are set to seem in Season Two of The Studio, with a narrative arc primarily based on what really occurred with the movie’s thwarted growth.

