Why was Madonna's biopic shelved?

Madonna was dead set on directing, and refused to cooperate unless she had total creative control. If you’ve seen W.E. you’ll understand why the studio got cold feet.

They should just make the movie without her permission with competent people. Does she need to be dead for that to happen? Perhaps there isn't interest outside of her to make this. How far she's fallen.

^^just released use of her music requires her consent. It's been a long week, sorry.

She's a control freak who can't act or direct. No way in Hell is a major studio going to give her financial backing, equipment or resources.

It would be like giving the keys to a brand new $500,000 Tesla to a homeless addict who doesn't know how to drive.

I think Julia looks a lot more like Melanie. I think Madonna may have realized that as well.

I liked W.E. alto it was overly long.

They could do something like Velvet Goldmine where the character and he story just happen to be very similar to Madonna

My two favorite Madge movies are Swept Away and Body of Evidence. In both movies she receives serious "pimp hand" and I'm down with it!

Movie killer!

Julia Garner is a rising star who’s only scratched the surface of her potential. She doesn’t need an old albatross like Madge around her neck, pulling her down.

Look, R4. Madonna is clearly embarrassing but she’s never had a reputation for being financially irresponsible. She’s known to be cheap in her personal life, but with all her problems, she’s a businesswoman who has produced music videos, tours, etc. for forty years now.

The film probably would’ve been professionally made with some brief sparks of creative inspiration. I suspect that Madonna lacked enough objectivity about her own life story than she would’ve had in another instance, and her idea of what was interesting about her rise was probably much different than what a studio or the audience would want to see.

She’s self-indulgent but not really professionally irresponsible.

I'm waiting for the Cher biopic. More interesting timeline, for one. We've got the wall of sound to start.

I think a good Madonna flick would focus only on one era of her career.

Madge's whole life? Too much for one flick.

Her new ass is too much for one flick. Needs to be a double feature.

I knew this turkey would never see the light of day, and I was correct.

Box office poison.

We are in the process of auditioning fetuses to play me from the age of 25-until now. Youth and vitality are synonymous with Madonna.

It was shelved because it was going to be a disaster, like how Madonna is today with that plumped-up face and fake ass.

Her need for control was probably turning off everyone who tried to help, and her ego would only have gotten bigger.

I can only imagine how the script painted Madonna as a martyr who was the victim of ageism and misogyny. I'm sure every scene hammered the point across in the most unsubtle way.

I remember nothing about her directorial debut W.E. aside from the fact that the period clothes looked good.

Madonna did have the good sense to cast Andrea Riseborough in W.E., one of her first big roles.

Julia has a hardness about her looks that she really does resemble Madonna and she is a good actress. I adored Madonna in the 80's, I guess this may be how my parent's generation felt watching stars like Elvis fall apart.

But she’s very slim and would have to gain 20 lbs. to approximate Madonna’s more rounded quality.

Not worth it for a flop.

R12 Technically they already did one. It was more of a Sonny and Cher biopic and it was a TV movie. It was released over 20 years ago. The actress playing Cher was a dead ringer and it was miles better than Madonna: Innocence Lost (there was never any to begin with!).

It is shelved because Madonna announced a tour. Which will more than occupy her time.

I also enjoyed W.E. If you’d slapped Tom Ford’s name on it as director it would have been a hit. Same stylization and pacing as A Single Man. And hot young Oscar Isaac, too!

[quote] Her need for control was probably turning off everyone who tried to help, and her ego would only have gotten bigger.

That never works.

R11 Look, why do people start sentences like that?

she wanted her ugly ass daughter to play her

I don't know why she never considered her son Lardass to play her in the biopic. Rhedd could've played a young Sean Penn (or Guy during that era), David Banda could've play Basquiat. She has a house full of people ready for their 15 minutes and we all know she loves to give it to them.

No actor wanted to take the role of her snatch.

Golly Gee, I hadn't even given any thought to this matter of such high importance.

The only place a turkey belongs is in the oven.

Now I've ruined my appetite for turkey.

R27 - I couldn’t agree more. Beginning a sentence with an imperative like look is a rude and annoying tic that seems to be increasingly used more and more.

It would’ve be more beneficial at this point to concentrate her energies on a jukebox Broadway musical of her life.

Wasn't the movie also just going to cover her life up until 1990? Somewhere, I read it just was planned to go up to Blond Ambition and end there.

At least according to several blind gossip items I've read, Madonna and the studio disagreed about what direction the movie should go in. As posters above not, Madge, known for her obsessive need to control, alienated the studio heads and the studio shelved it. No doubt her I'm-going-on-tour is the excuse they all agreed to in the hopes that the idea of the film will just fade away eventually.

^posters above note

Obviously, she kept on pushing it over the border line!

[quote]r36 According to several blind gossip items I've read, Madonna and the studio disagreed about what direction the movie should go in.

Yeah. The studio wanted it to be good.

The studio wanted to make it a full life biopic and Madonna refused to die to give it an ending.

No objective biopic can be made until Madge returns to her mother ship. I am happy to wait it out.

Will this movie include scenes of her "Latin stud farm" apartment in New York where she would reguarly have sex with 15 year old Puerto Ricans? If not, it's not worth watching.

[quote]But she’s very slim and would have to gain 20 lbs. to approximate Madonna’s more rounded quality.

Hey, I have a fat suit for you in one of my feng shui walk-in closets. It might be a little bit over the top, but I'll do anything to piss off the old hag.

Oh, look! There it is.

Fuck off op

They could always have another Ab Fab reboot put in her in as a cameo. She would nail it.

I wonder if there is much interest in a film of her life? 20 years ago, yes, but now I am not sure.

[quote]Why was Madonna's biopic shelved?

Because they sense that they soon will be able to show, let us say, "the entire arc of her brilliant career and life, from promising start to bitter, sad finish."

who was the hot guy who got her pregnant in Papa Don't Preach? He could get me pregnant if he wanted to

I've turned a gentle cool spray of holy water and Oh, dears in the direction of R48, hoping that it doesn't burn too much.

OP, the better question is: why was Madonna’s biopic given the greenlight?

Madonna is a novelty act and is pretty much over. There simply isn’t an audience for this type of thing. Her image is tarnished beyond repair. She has to do nostalgia shows now like Janet.

Jamie Auld looked exactly like Madonna.

No one by Jamie will come close to looking like Madonna.

Too bad Jamie died.

Jamie left, Madonna right.

Jamie.

Madonna probably wasn't playing ball with the studio. She lives like royalty--but she wants a studio to finance it. That means, she comes in for meetings when she says she will. She gets her work done. She is totally prepared for those meetings. She has been living like royalty for so long (and may be dealing with sobriety issues) that its impossible to believe she was behaving like an actual director in the ramp up process.

William Orbit stopped working with her because she never showed up for recording sessions. He'd spend weeks waiting around and she'd show up when she wanted to. Michael Jackson was the same way--would show up when he wanted, if he wanted.

The only thing rockstars have to do is show up within a reasonable time window for paid performances (concerts). We know she's had issues with that in the past.

No studio is going to risk $100 million on Madonna as a co-writer, producer, and director. It would be a financial risk to make the movie anyway. She adds a whole new level of risk.

She also needs to approve the music so they can't make it without her. Also. SHE has been in charge of the script process. Thats a scary proposition. She is not the most self aware and doesn't have a sense of humor about herself, unlike say Elton John who recognizes his own ridiculousness at times

Plus these projects are sometimes developed for decades. It was over 15 years that ROCKETMAN started as a broadway show and morphed into a movie project.

Jamie does look just like Madonna, except sweeter and not as harsh.

r49 fuck you I cannot google and must know now.

Letting a Cluster B disordered individual upload a LinkedIn profile is problematic enough. Allowing one as disturbed as Madonna to spend millions of other people’s money filming their own life story is essentially malpractice.

She’d assuredly portray herself as some sort of musical Joan of Arc instead of the manipulative monster she is. She’d also undoubtedly throw in a rape scene (where she isn’t the rapist) as well to seal her victimhood and sacrifice on film. There would be no trace of the countless victims she’s used and abused along the way to “success.”

The lucky actress who escaped this near-tragedy should be grateful. She narrowly missed Elizabeth Berkeley-level career destruction.

Madonna has talent as a director. W/E showed promise.

The script, which she cowrote, was reportedly really good. Madonna was The problem. She got frustrated with the timeline wanting to tour and decided to tour. Her tour just added 9 more dates for a total of 79 and counting. She's adding 3, 4, 5 shows a city. Next, she'll announce Asia, Australia, and then Latin America.

Madonna's whole career is bipolar- she can sing well or not; she can act well, or not; she can direct well, or not; she can behave well, or not.

I still like her.

"Caresse, I am DYING. Get me a FAHN!"

[quote]I wonder if there is much interest in a film of her life? 20 years ago, yes, but now I am not sure.

Or 20 years from now. She's in the awkward stage. Long past her time in the pop vanguard, but not enough a part of the past for nostalgia.

[quote] Madonna has talent as a director. W/E showed promise.

Hi, Madonna!

Chalamet should play Madonna.

WE sucked, and I actually have interest in the Duchess of Windsor.

Actress wasn't pretty enough.

[quote] "They could do something like Velvet Goldmine where the character and he story just happen to be very similar to Madonna"

Or Céline, R7.

[quote]Hi, Madonna!

"Showed promise" is too restrained. We'll know Madonna has joined us if someone writes that W.E. was a great film, the release of which was sabotaged by the patriarchy. But Madonna knew while making the film that the forces of society would be arrayed against her, and she willingly took their abuse in 2011 so that women like Chloe Zhao, Jane Campion, and Sarah Polley could succeed a decade later.

[quote]They could do something like Velvet Goldmine where the character and he story just happen to be very similar to Madonna

I'd want a front-row seat to the shitshow that would ensue if that happened. Madonna would probably claim again to have felt "raped."

[quote]Hi, Madonna!

Madonna has been known to post here.

They're awaiting her death by filler before moving ahead.

Madonna can’t be the central figure in an honest portrayal because no one would like her. Monstrous human being who got the face and ass she deserves.

M A D O N N A

Note also that the promised classic album special editions have failed to happen. All signs point to her not functioning as she should and the upcoming tour could quite literally end her.

Madonna should have played Peter Pan around the time of her Girlie Show tour with the short blonde pixie cut and lean boyish fit body, she would have made a wonderful PP during that era. :-)

She's had both knees and hips replaced in recent years and is nearly 65. Unless she's doing minimal dancing or a lot of sitting there is no way she's going to do 80 or more shows without paying the price physically even with a world class medical team and trainer backing her.

She's either going to cause even more damage to her body if she lets her ego take control (as usual) and does full on dancing at each and every show or it's going to be Michael Jackson and the This Is It tour all over again.

Even Cher who is older and tours extensively takes it easy. She just walks back and forth on stage with a little skip here and there and maybe a few dance moves every now and then. Having sung pretty much the same setlist (only the order changes) for over the last 20 years must help her a great deal.

I don't think "full-on dancing" is in the cards even if she wants to do that. My prediction is that this will be her busiest, most populated stage ever. Remember that concert clip of "Music" with Maluma from last year, where she's just sort of shimmying in place, making the occasional suggestive gesture, and otherwise looking lost or awkward? That, but for hours, with dozens of support personnel running, jumping, and twirling around her.

R78 So she'll be a singing Maypole then?

Oh, look at the glee about a woman in her mid sixties not being able to be the athlete she was most of her life and what they and almost every other performer hasn't been able to achieve since they were in their mid 20s.

Madonna has no sense of humour.

Her 2023 Celebration tour is 98% sold out with more additional tour dates to be added in 2024, she knows her fan base.

[quote] So she'll be a singing Maypole then?

Maybe more like a little golden Buddha? And the shirtless male dancers occasionally rub her belly for good luck.

I think a Madonna biopic would be great, but it will only really work if Madonna isn't directly involved. Her ego is too big to let go and to have someone else tell her story in an authentic way, without trying to micromanage and manipulate every aspect of it to the point it resembles the fantasy in her head, not what actually happened.

Do it when she's dead.

I bet she doesn't make it through this tour.

[quote] Her 2023 Celebration tour is 98% sold out

No it isn’t.

She said Wallis and Edward weren’t Nazi sympathizers and then went on to thank Neo-Nazi John Galliano in the credits. lol. Stupid whore. She just hired all of the King’s Speech people and expected to win an Oscar. She even got a vanity writing credit.

I think announcing a greatest hits tour was to save face after her biopic was rejected. She didn't scrap the biopic and decide to go on tour. No one wanted to do it so she lied and said that she was the one who put it on hold herself. She once again rewrote the narrative to come out as strong, victorious and on top.

Because for years she had expressed great disdain for doing greatest hits tours and Vegas residencies. She rather do more Madame X styled crap than perform the old stuff that dates and ages her.

Oddly enough nearly 28% of her followers on Instagram are purchased bot accounts. Very sad.

The upcoming world tour may be a challenge but Madonna is a pro. Ask anyone in the business. Madonna is doing this for her hundreds of millions of fans around the world. Madonna keeps herself eternally beautiful, vibrant, relevant and creative for her fans. She is so generous and we adore her. You haters can just shut your potty mouths. You wouldn't recognise a once in a century superstar if one fell on your head!

R89

She will NEVER complete that tour.

She will scrap the tour at the last minute and do a limited residency at Las Vegas instead.

Do y’all agree?

Madonna has fucked up her legacy with her plastic surgery and "I am young!" bullshit. I was a fan until she croaked out a song in the wrong key (Eurovision?). Now I regret any moment I spent being "I'm breathless" over her. She's a charlatan with not much talent. Just put her in a home.

R89- Lourdes, hoping for an even bigger inheritance.

She literally can’t sing on key. She is a fraud.

I wonder how many songs she will lip-synch or use "help" with to sing songs she can no longer sing in the proper key. No way she could sing Open Your Heart, Take a Bow, or Evita songs nowadays.

I love this review of W.E.

"Papa don't preach, I'm in trouble deep. Papa don't preach, I've been losing sleep"

"But I've made up my mind..I'm aborting ur baby, aborting ur baby,Yea!

"Papa don't preach, stop fucking me daddy, Please stop, stop fucking my pussy"

I think it would be very hard to make a comprehensive movie about Madonna and have it be interesting. They should make a movie that takes places in 1990 or so and have it be about her at her absolute peak. There could be a lot of sex, drugs and pop music sleaze as well as cgi cameos from the famous people of the day. A grimy period piece similar to Boogie Nights. It will never happen but oh well.

Showgirls is the closest we’ll get. Nomi is young madonna - feral, barely talented, sociopathic- Crystal is old madonna - hardened, cynical, embittered, barely talented, sociopathic.

[quote] I think announcing a greatest hits tour was to save face after her biopic was rejected. She didn't scrap the biopic and decide to go on tour. No one wanted to do it so she lied and said that she was the one who put it on hold herself. She once again rewrote the narrative to come out as strong, victorious and on top.

She already had a deal with Universal for the biopic. They shelved it. It’s not like she tried to sell it. She was already locked in. This is the fourth film project that has been shelved for her.

She's too difficult to work with. She seems like a nightmare who has to control everything and cannot listen to any differing opinions. I don't think it was worth it for Universal. Anyway, it would just be a movie about how she was constantly a victim of misogyny and the patriarchy. Every scene would be Madonna fighting against the patriarchy. It would have been lame.

What a Pri Madonna. 🙄

Her freaky physical changes were a huge part of what killed it. Her recent pictures made the world think she was unhinged and really, if you think about it, wouldn't you have done the same?

She's a rough old slapper.

Her alien death mask is horrifying.