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Living in a material world requires money, even when you're Madonna.
In a new cover story with Interview magazine published on Monday (June 22), the "Ray of Light" singer opened up about the scrapped Universal Studios biopic about her life and career and revealed the alleged reason why the project was shelved. The biopic, which was reported to star Ozark actress Julia Garner, was stalled in January 2023, per People.
"I was supposed to make a movie about my life," Madonna said. "I worked on my script for two years and spent two years at Universal Studios with the line producers doing budgeting and casting."
However, the Queen of Pop explained that, as the process unfolded, she and Universal "had a falling out" over the budget of the project not matching the scale of the story she wanted to tell.
"I've had an extraordinary life. I've had a huge life, so I needed a big budget," she said. "They couldn't get their heads around it."
Despite the "Vogue" hitmaker claiming she found a way to make the film for less money, the studio seemingly wasn't on board with the plan.
"Maybe they just didn't believe in me," she said. "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 was left "in limbo" after the project ultimately "fell apart," even when Netflix reached out to make a series instead, which she explained 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."
After the biopic plans fell through, Madonna needed to channel her creative energy into a new project, which eventually led to her focus on music and her upcoming album Confessions II, out July 3.