“They couldn’t get their heads around it,” Madonna said of Universal, adding that she tried to make the movie in Serbia as a cheaper alternative.

Madonna alleges ‘falling out’ with movie studio led to delayed biopic: ‘Maybe they just didn’t believe in me’

"They couldn’t get their heads around it," Madonna said of Universal, adding that she tried to make the movie in Serbia as a cheaper alternative.

Joey Nolfi

Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes RuPaul’s Drag Race video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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June 22, 2026 11:38 a.m. ET

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Madonna and her biopic star Julia Garner. Credit:

- Madonna has spoken out about an alleged "falling out" with Universal over her delayed biopic movie.

- The icon was initially meant to direct a script she co-wrote with Diablo Cody and Erin Cressida Wilson.

- "I’ve had an extraordinary life. I’ve had a huge life, so I needed a big budget."

She might've hit big with her 1990 single "Justify My Love," but Madonna isn't interested in having to justify a big budget for a biopic about her larger-than-life legacy as one of the most iconic performers in pop culture history.

Years after Madonna first revealed she would direct a biographical drama about her life (with screenwriting help from Oscar-winning *Juno* screenwriter Diablo Cody and, later, Erin Cressida Wilson) alongside distributor Universal, the singer-songwriter revealed what she claims happened behind the scenes that ultimately led to the project's significant delay.

"I was supposed to make a movie about my life. I worked on my script for two years and spent two years at Universal Studios with the line producers doing budgeting and casting," Madonna said in a new *Interview* story. "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. You know what I mean?"

Madonna alleged that the studio "couldn’t get their heads around it," so she attempted to find "a way to make it for less money in Serbia," but that, in her estimation, the studio wasn't "into the idea" of making the movie there.

"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 replied, before alleging, "But anyway, I was in limbo when that fell apart, and then Netflix reached out to make a series. 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. Don’t ask."

** previously reported that the biopic would star Emmy winner Julia Garner in the lead role, with Julia Fox previously holding meetings to discuss potentially playing Madonna's longtime friend, actress Debi Mazar. After a press release announced that the film would enter production with Universal, Madonna confirmed the delay of the project as she set out on her Celebration world tour in 2023, which also rolled out amid Madonna's hospitalization with a serious bacterial infection.

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"That’s just the way it goes. I started trying to understand how making a series would work. It’s a very, very different process," Madonna said of the potential move of the story from a big-screen movie to a streaming series at Netflix. "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. 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.'"

EW has reached out to a Universal representative for comment.

Though Madonna's biopic was delayed at Universal, she teased its revival in a series of social media posts in 2024, wherein a photo of the script teased that the title would be *Who's That Girl* — a reference to Madonna's 1987 comedy film and its accompanying No. 1-charting soundtrack single of the same name.

Before a September 2020 press release confirmed that Universal would make the film alongside Oscar nominee Amy Pascal, Madonna initially revealed that she and Cody were working on an early draft of the script, which, at the time, had a working title of *Little Sparrow*. EW confirmed that, in 2021, Cody eventually finished her work on the script and left the project to pursue other work, with Wilson stepping in to help Madonna hone the story.

Madonna performing in Times Square.

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Milestones Madonna said she wanted to cover in the movie's story included her meteoric rise through the entertainment industry in New York City, penning "Like a Prayer," making the movie *Evita*, and chronicling her connection with Jose Gutierez Xtravaganza and Luis Xtravaganza, staples of the Harlem ballroom scene who played a huge role in the success of her 1990 smash song "Vogue."

Since the delay of the film, Madonna has worked with Garner on a number of things, including bringing her on stage during the Celebration Tour, casting her in her* Confessions II *short film, and joining her on the set of *The Studio*'s second season, where the Apple TV series filmed with the pair in Venice, Italy — the same location where Madonna shot her "Like a Virgin" music video in 1984.

The process of switching the film over to a series format, Madonna said, led to her interest in making her forthcoming album, *Confessions II*, her first full-length LP since 2019's *Madame X *and a highly anticipated sequel to her 2005 pop hit *Confessions on a Dance Floor.*

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"I reached out to [*Confessions* producer] Stuart [Price] because I thought the world is in a very dark place and people need to dance. I hadn’t worked with Stuart for a long time. We’d just done the Celebration Tour together, but besides that, I didn’t really see or speak to him for probably 15 years," Madonna said, adding that their sessions together were inspired by dark personal times. "I was living in New York and I reached out to him, thinking, 'What if we tried to make *Confessions on a Dance Floor: Part II*, and reenter the world of inspirational dance music?' So I came to London and went to his studio, and we were just playing around to see if there was magic between us. I had a lot of stuff going on in my life personally. My brother was very, very, very ill, and my stepmother, with whom I’d had a very traumatic relationship throughout my entire childhood, had just died."

Leading up to the release of *Confessions II* (out July 3), Madonna has released three songs from the album so far, including buzz track "I Feel So Free" and singles "Love Sensation" and "Bring Your Love," featuring Sabrina Carpenter.

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