Madonna Says Her Biopic Fell Apart at Universal Over Budget, Then at Netflix Because She “Needed a Big Budget”

Madonna said her long-developing biopic project fell apart first at Universal and later at Netflix, describing the breakdown as a dispute over budget size. In an interview reported June 22, 2026, Madonna said that “we had a falling out, me and Universal, regarding budget,” referring to the studio that had been developing a film adaptation of her life.

The project at Universal reportedly included casting plans at one stage, including Julia Garner in the role of Madonna, according to the same report. Madonna said that even after the project moved through development channels, the scale of production she envisioned continued to drive negotiations and ultimately derailed the plan.

Madonna said she later encountered similar constraints with Netflix. She described telling Netflix that she “needed a big budget,” explaining that she was not able to secure the resources required to make the biopic as she wanted, and that the negotiations did not reach a workable agreement.

The report places the difficulties in the context of major-streaming and studio decision-making, where large-scale music biopics can require substantial commitments for production design, casting, archival material clearances, and period recreation. Madonna’s remarks, as characterized in the coverage, indicate that budget expectations became the central issue rather than, for example, creative disagreement alone.

For audiences, the development failures mean the biopic has not yet moved into production or release, and the project’s status remains unresolved. For industry watchers, the comments highlight how even high-profile stars can find that financing and platform economics are decisive factors in whether a film project survives development.

The next steps are unclear from the reporting, including whether the biopic will be reconfigured for another production pathway or platform. For now, the latest public explanation from Madonna centers on budget negotiations with Universal and Netflix as the reasons the biopic did not proceed.