A mixed history in cinema seems to be counting against Madonna as she publicly discusses disagreements with studios over her biopic.
In a world where musical biopics seemed to get commissioned with greater ease than any other genre (although more details have emerged about Ridley Scott’s increasingly rocky path to production with his planned Bee Gees film,) you’d think a Madonna movie would be an instant green light. After all, she’s an icon of pop with an incredibly interesting life story and a back catalogue of hits to rival any musical biopic that has come before.
The project did make it into some kind of development back in 2020, with Madonna and Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody working on an early version. Then Erin Cressida Wilson was drafted in to co-write alongside Madonna before the project was scrapped by Universal.
Before that happened the planned film had even found its Madonna: Julia Garner, an actor whose star continues to rise following a string of impressive performances was set to play the star throughout her incredible career.
In its current incarnation however, it has no studio backing and Madonna is planning to write and direct the whole thing herself.
Given that the star’s history at directing – 2008’s Filth And Wisdom and 2011’s W.E. – are not generally held in the highest regard, that decision was always going to make finding studio backing difficult and according to Madonna herself, that’s proved to be the case.
The star took to social media to recount her struggles in finding backing for the project, writing:
‘After struggling for days in LA , listening to producers and agents tell me why I couldn’t make my film — been working on it for 4 years!!! —downsize-down scale -think smaller-they say—I realized that everything in my life is going to be challenged. No easy rides for me. I guess I should be grateful.. It forces me to think outside the box. I did not have a normal life. I cannot make this in the normal way. Spending time with my creative friends was just the fuel I needed to keep going! We all agreed that we need to be even more fearless!!! Art =Survival. We cannot shrink and make ourselves smaller. If you want something badly enough in life— the whole universe will conspire to hell you get it. Should I make the story of my life into a series or a feature film?’
It seems that the musical icon has doubled down on doing things her way and although that might make things more difficult, all power to her. Giving control of her story to somebody else would be the very antithesis of everything Madonna stood (and continues to stand) for.
She”s going to do things her way or not at all, it seems. We’ll bring you more on this one as we hear it.
