Madonna Asks Her Fans: Is Her Life Too Big for a Movie?

Madge took to social media to say she's "struggling" with producers wanting her to "downsize" her long-planned biopic. But the Queen of Pop has another idea: a TV series.

Posting that "producers and agents" had been insisting that the project needed to be smaller – "downsize-down scale -think smaller-they say," Madonna related – the superstar said she had "realized that everything in my life is going to be challenged," and added, "I did not have a normal life. I cannot make this in the normal way."

"No easy rides for me," Madonna wrote. "I guess I should be grateful.. It forces me to think outside the box."

So, after a rejuvenating period with "creative friends," the "Like a Virgin" singer came up with a new approach: "We all agreed that we need to be even more fearless!!!" the singer posted. "Art =Survival We cannot shrink and make ourselves smaller."

Quite the opposite, in fact, as Madonna suggested her story might be better served by the larger canvas of a TV series as opposed to a movie.

Earlier reports noted that Madonna intended to direct the film herself, but she put it on the back burner in order to embark on her massive Celebrations tour. That tour was delayed when Madge experienced a health crisis that she has characterized as having been nearly fatal.

Others suggested that there was more to the story, with the film having descended into so-called development hell. Universal Pictures, the last studio to have been reported as being attached to the project, did not say one way or the other.

In any case, however, Madonna's attention has turned back to the long-gestating film.

"Following the conclusion of her Celebration tour, Madonna announced in July that she would return to work on the biopic, and shared a photo that showed the film's potential title, 'Who's That Girl,' written at the top of a screenplay page," Entertainment Weekly recalled, after noting that in terms of a screenplay, the project already has "an initial draft with Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody and subsequent revisions by Erin Cressida Wilson..."

The title is the same as Madonna's hit 1987 song, as well as an earlier film from that same year directed by James Foley, a comedy that starred Madonna and Griffin Dunne.

The idea of a series is not entirely new. The superstar's career has been long enough and diverse enough that getting a script in order proved a massive challenge. "None of the many drafts of the scripts was ever under 180 pages, according to one source," The Hollywood Reporter relayed in early 2023. "That led to conversations about perhaps splitting the movie into two or perhaps making it into an event miniseries."

The casting of the film was also a strenuous undertaking, with would-be leading ladies reportedly attending a "Madonna boot camp" overseen, in part, by Madge herself. Billboard noted that "'Inventing Anna' actress Julia Garner was rumored to have been offered the role of portraying the pop superstar."

The next verse in the saga has yet to be written, but Madge is clearly in it to finish it.