Madonna and the “cursed” film: the stages of an impossible undertaking
This biopic is not going to happen. Actually, yes. When the project seemed to have officially run aground, between continuous postponements and second thoughts, Madonna once again takes out of the drawer the script of her very troubled biopic, the film with which the Queen of Pop will tell her story to the cinema.
A year and a half after the news of the indefinite suspension of work on the film, the Material Girl surprises fans and Instagram by sharing a series of photos of her at work behind a typewriter. The 65-year-old American pop star is (again) rewriting the script for the biopic, as she highlights on a typed sheet of paper: “Rewritten by Madonna with ECW,” where ECW is the acronym for Erin Cressida Wilson, who had already co-signed the 2021 version of the script. Will this really be the right time? While we wait to find out, let’s retrace all the steps – so far – of an undertaking that until now has seemed simply impossible.
April 2017: The controversy with Universal Pictures
In April 2017, Universal Pictures announced that it had purchased the rights to a screenplay about Madonna’s rise to fame written by Elyse Hollander, screenwriter of romantic films such as “It was romance”, and that it wanted to make a film called “Blond ambition”. Rumors have Michael De Luca (already behind “Fifty Shades of Grey”) in pole position to produce the film. But Madonna is having none of it. And on social media, she thundered: “Why does Universal want to make a film about me based on a screenplay that is all lies? No one knows what I know and what I saw. Only I can tell my story. Anyone who tries is a charlatan and a fool”.
August 2020: Madonna’s announcement
In the summer of 2020, Madonna announced that the film about her life will be made, but as she says. The Queen of Pop announced that she will direct the film and co-write the screenplay, the latter together with Diablo Cody, already behind the success of “Juno”. She also announced that the film will be produced by Amy Pascal (“Ghostbusters” and “Little Women”).
October 2021: the first details
In October 2021, Madonna was a guest on the “Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”, one of the flagship programs on American television, and speaking about the biopic she said: “A lot of people have tried to write a movie about me, but they are all men. There is no one on this planet who can write a movie about me, except me”.
February 2022: the provisional title
In February 2022, Madonna revealed the film’s working title via social media: “Little Sparrow”.
March 2022: The grueling “bootcamp” to choose the protagonist
In March 2022, an article in the Hollywood Reporter in the US recounts the selection process for the main role, that of the girl who left Michigan to conquer the world: according to the US magazine, Madonna would have organized a grueling bootcamp in which the candidates would have participated. The guessing game on names is going crazy: there is talk of Florence Pugh, Alexa Demie, Odessa Young, Emma Laird, Barbie Ferreira, Sydney Sweeney, Bebe Rexha, Sky Ferreira, but in the end Julia Garner wins.
July 2022: The Interview About the Film
In a July 2022 interview with Variety, Madonna spoke at length about the biopic in the works. She said: “I’ve had an extraordinary life, I have to make an extraordinary film. It was also a way to put my hat on it before others, because a lot of people wanted to make a film about me, mostly misogynistic men. So I stepped in and said, ‘No one is going to tell my story except me.’” She added: “The script is very long and it’s difficult to cut things out. I worked on it a lot, but it’s like cutting off my arm.”
January 2023: the suspension
In January 2023, Variety also reported that the film’s production had been suspended indefinitely. The reason? Madonna’s inability to dedicate the right amount of time to the biopic, with the “Celebration tour”, her fortieth-year career tour, about to start.
May 2023: Photos with Julia Garner
In May 2023, the Queen of Pop shared a series of photos with Julia Garner on Instagram, rekindling fans’ hopes: “Bitches, we are Madonna!”, the two wrote.
