Madonna has opened up about why her long-in-the-works biopic hasn’t seen the light of day — and maybe never will.
According to the “Material Girl” singer, her plans for the film chronicling her life story — with “Ozark” star Julia Garner enlisted to portray her — wound up unraveling when she found herself at odds with the movie studio backing the project.
Madonna’s Biopic Announcement Made Headlines
Back in 2020, Madonna announced that she’d made a deal with Universal Pictures to produce a biopic telling her extraordinary life story. With Madonna behind the camera as screenwriter and director, and Garner tapped to star, the biopic was one of Hollywood’s most highly anticipated projects.
Alas, it never got off the ground. In 2023, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the much-anticipated Madonna biopic was officially dead.
That was followed by another report, in 2025, that she had partnered with director Shawn Levy (whose credits include “Deadpool & Wolverine” and numerous episodes of “Stranger Things”) to transform the film into a limited series for Netflix. Sadly, that too never came to fruition.
Madonna and the Studio Clashed Over Budget
In a recent sit-down with Interview magazine, Madonna revealed the problem was that her vision for telling her life story did not align with that of the studio.
“I was supposed to make a movie about my life,” Madonna explained. “I worked on my script for two years and spent two years at Universal Studios with the line producers doing budgeting and casting. 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.”
According to Madonna, she envisioned a lavish production, while studio execs were thinking something cheaper, with a low-budget indie vibe.
“They couldn’t get their heads around it,” she continued. “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.’ And I said, ‘Did you read the script?’ My whole life has been survival. I’m not going there for a holiday.”
Madonna’s Attempts to Bring Her Biopic to Netflix Bit the Dust
With plans for the biopic stalled, a lifeline arrived when she was contacted by Netflix about turning the project into a limited series for the streamer in partnership with Levy.
That plan grew complicated when she wanted to use the script she’d already written for the biopic as the foundation for the series. Universal, she explained, owned her screenplay due to the terms of the original deal.
“I was in limbo when that fell apart, and then Netflix reached out to make a series,” Madonna recalled. “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.”
Transforming the Biopic Into a TV Series Proved Problematic
Meanwhile, she quickly came to realize that the process of creating a standalone movie and a multi-episode series are two very different animals.
“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. This went on for another eight or nine months.”
Ultimately, she became disenchanted with Hollywood and decided to shift her focus back to her day job as a pop star. “I was like, ‘Good thing I have another job because I need to work, I need to create. I need to do what I was put on this earth to do,’” she added.
Madonna’s New Album Marks a Return to Dance Music
The result of that shift is her new album, “Confessions II.” A sequel to her 2005 offering “Confessions on a Dance Floor” reunites the singer with producer Stuart Price for an album of electronic dance music.
The first single from the album is a collab with Sabrina Carpenter, “Bring Your Love.”
Back in April, the 67-year-old music legend stunned the audience at Coachella when she took to the stage alongside Carpenter, dueting on hits such as “Like a Prayer” and “Vogue” before debuting their new single.
“Confessions II” is set to drop on Friday, July 3.
