Hollywood is hung up on Madonna, but a biopic remains a frozen secret. Regardless, the legendary singer’s life is going to make it to screen eventually — although whether it gets to the small or big screen first is yet to be determined. This week, “Weapons” star Julia Garner — who was announced to star in a Madonna movie way back in 2022 — confirmed on the podcast “Smartless” that, in spite of reports to the contrary, the project “Like a Virgin” is still very much in gestation.
“That’s supposed to still happen,” she said (via Variety). Garner was set to star alongside Julia Fox, who would play Madonna BFF and frequent music video co-star Debi Mazar. Fox spoke with IndieWire in 2024 about the movie’s reported shelving by Universal, seeming similarly ambiguous.
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“I know it was gonna be either tour or movie and then she went on tour,” Fox said. “So I don’t know when the movie will be picking back up again or when they’re going to start working on it again. But I didn’t hear anything. I actually don’t know … I mean, I’d still love to but I genuinely don’t know. They are going back, you know, when they’re like 19 and they first meet. I feel like I might have already aged out of that casting, but we’ll see.”
On Smartless, Garner said she was enthused to take on Madonna, because she “just wanted to see if [she] could do it.” The film was — or is — to be directed by the “Vogue” icon herself, for whom Garner auditioned. “I wasn’t a trained dancer and I had to learn how to dance and then dance in front of her and convince her that I can dance, basically, and sing… And sing with her!” Garner related.
Madonna shared on Instagram a year ago that she was still working on the screenplay. “I Need A-lot of Bandz to make this………..OKAY,” she wrote, adding, “Story of my life.”
The movie, however, isn’t the only Madonna story in the works. In May, Deadline revealed that a Netflix series is planned — and Garner does have a long history with the streamer, remaining a mainstay with “Ozark,” “Inventing Anna,” and an upcoming limited series about the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The Madonna TV show would be executive produced by the “A League of Their Own” star, alongside “Stranger Things” EP Shawn Levy.
Whether a series or a film, Madonna’s story would be the latest boomer artist bio in what has become a reliable awards-friendly genre. Just last season, Timothée Chalamet earned an Oscar nod as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” while Kingsley Ben-Adir also got stellar notices for his portrayal of Bob Marley. In recent years, Austin Butler was nominated for his role in and as “Elvis,” and Rami Malek won the Academy Award for playing Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody.” This doesn’t even begin to touch on the boomer artist docs — like the Grammy-winning “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice” or the Peter Jackson-directed “The Beatles: Get Back.”
As for Madonna, when whatever it becomes will happen remains uncertain. After all, life is a mystery, as she told us in “Like a Prayer.” Whenever a film drops, though, Garner assures it will be worthwhile. “Anything that’s great… takes a long time,” she said.
