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Julia Garner has offered fresh hope for Madonna’s long-delayed biopic, saying she still believes the ambitious film about the pop icon’s life should eventually reach the screen. The 32-year-old actor, who was selected to portray Madonna after an intensive casting process, said the project should not be considered dead despite years of uncertainty surrounding its development.
“I think the movie has to get made,” Garner said in a new interview. “But we’ll see…” Her comments come more than three years after Universal Pictures stopped developing the project in 2023. Madonna had planned to direct the film herself, while the screenplay went through multiple versions, with writers including Diablo Cody and Erin Cressida Wilson working on drafts.
Budget became major hurdle
Madonna revealed earlier this year that the scale of her life story — and the budget required to recreate it — contributed to the project falling apart at Universal. The singer said she had spent two years writing the screenplay and another two years working with the studio on budgeting and casting before the plans stalled.
Garner had emerged as Madonna’s choice for the lead role in 2022 following a highly competitive audition process. The proposed film was expected to trace Madonna’s journey from her early years in Michigan through her arrival in New York and rise to global superstardom. Reports had suggested the story would extend through the period surrounding her acclaimed 1998 album Ray of Light.
Garner and Madonna stay close
Although the biopic failed to enter production, Garner’s association with Madonna has continued. She joined the singer onstage during a Brooklyn stop on Madonna’s tour in December 2023, while Madonna subsequently teased a screenplay carrying the working title Who’s That Girl, raising speculation that the project could eventually be revived.
Garner had already said in 2025 that the film was “supposed to still happen”. She and Madonna have since worked together on the second season of The Studio, where Garner plays a fictionalised version of herself. The pair filmed together in Venice and have maintained a friendship away from the set, with Garner describing Madonna as one of the funniest people she has met.
Future remains uncertain
There is still no confirmed production timetable or studio commitment for the movie. A separate autobiographical Madonna series is under development, but Garner is not currently attached to that project.
For Garner, however, the original film remains unfinished business. Her latest comments suggest that despite years of rewrites, budget difficulties and stalled development, she remains willing to step into the role if Madonna’s big-screen life story is revived.
