Madonna Finally Explains the Budget War That Killed Her Universal Biopic Before It Ever Began

For years, Hollywood watched one of the most anticipated music biopics in recent memory quietly collapse behind closed doors. ‘Who’s That Girl’ was meant to follow Madonna from her humble beginnings in Michigan through her artistic coming of age in New York City during the eighties, leading all the way up to the era of her landmark 1998 album. The project carried enormous commercial promise, and its prolonged silence became one of the industry’s more frustrating open secrets.

Universal Pictures won a competitive multi-studio auction to produce the film, with the pop icon on board to co-write and direct. Screenwriter Diablo Cody, known for ‘Juno,’ worked on an early draft but eventually exited the project. Erin Cressida Wilson then stepped in, with Madonna receiving a co-writing credit on that version as well. Meanwhile, ‘Ozark’ Emmy winner Julia Garner won the lead role following a highly publicized audition boot camp that drew in a wave of high-profile performers.

Now, speaking to Interview magazine, Madonna has broken her silence and placed the blame squarely on a financial disagreement with the studio. She revealed that she spent two years working on her script and two more years at Universal Studios with line producers on budgeting and casting, before the partnership fell apart entirely. According to Madonna, Universal simply could not get their heads around the scale of budget she required, given the sweeping scope of her life story.

In a bid to bring costs down, Madonna explored the possibility of filming in Serbia, but the studio remained unconvinced. She recalled one of Universal’s first reactions being that they did not believe she would stay in Serbia for more than four days, to which she responded by asking whether they had actually read the script, emphasizing that survival has been the throughline of her entire life. It is a revealing moment, one that suggests the creative and logistical gulf between the two sides was wider than anyone publicly acknowledged at the time.

When the Universal deal collapsed, Netflix reached out about adapting the story into a series, but that process introduced an entirely new set of complications. Madonna discovered she could not use the screenplay she had written under the Universal deal without purchasing it back from the studio at what she described as an extortionist price, despite having written it herself. She then spent roughly eight to nine months trying to find the right showrunner for the Netflix version, ultimately coming up empty.

Despite those twin setbacks, Madonna’s life story is still heading to the screen in some form. Reports from 2025 confirmed she had partnered with ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’ filmmaker Shawn Levy on a new limited series for Netflix, though the project remains in early development and Julia Garner’s involvement in this version has not been confirmed. The story will also live on in a fictional capacity, as Madonna and Garner filmed scenes together for the second season of Seth Rogen’s Apple comedy ‘The Studio,’ in which a Madonna biopic starring Garner heads to the Venice Film Festival for its world premiere.

It is a strange fate for a project that once seemed unstoppable, and Madonna’s candor about the budget battles, the script ownership dispute, and the showrunner search paints a picture of just how merciless the development process can be, even for one of the most famous artists alive. Whether the Netflix series with Levy ultimately delivers what the Universal film never could remains to be seen, so share your thoughts below on whether you think a limited series format is actually the right canvas for Madonna’s story.