Madonna Biopic in the Works — Again
Madonna’s biopic is back in the works, nearly a year and a half after news broke that it wasn’t moving forward.
The film about the singer’s life, which was set to chronicle her decades-long career, was originally set at Universal Pictures, but plans for it fell through in January 2023.
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In a new Instagram post, Madonna shared a compilation of photos of her working on a typewriter, with an array of papers around her. In one of the shots, a potential title — Who’s That Girl, a nod to her 1987 song and film of the same name — is seen on the first page of what looks like a script.
Another glimpse at the script reads “rewrites by Madonna and ECW,” seemingly referring to Secretary writer Erin Cressida Wilson, who was brought onto the project after Diablo Cody had to step away from it. Amy Pascal was set to produce the movie originally.
“I Need A-lot of Bandz to make this………..OKAY,” she captioned the post. “(Story of my life.)”
When the project was shut down, a source told The Hollywood Reporter that development was always a struggle for the movie and that the many drafts of the scripts were always over 180 pages. There were conversations about splitting the movie in two or making it a miniseries, but that never panned out.
“You have 40 years of success, and it’s very hard to put that into one movie,” the source said at the time.
Madonna was set to direct the biopic. Julia Garner was the frontrunner to play the legendary artist, after a long audition process that saw many stars — including Florence Pugh, Odessa Young and Alexa Demie — vying for the lead role. The hopefuls participated in intense and sometimes 11-hour choreography sessions with Madonna’s choreographer and the artist herself.
At this time, it is unknown if Universal is still attached to the project.
THR reached out to Universal Pictures and reps for Madonna.
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