Julia Garner has revealed the Madonna biopic, in which she will play the music icon, is still in the works.
She also reassured fans about the delay, saying that ‘anything that’s great…takes a long time’.
The Ozark actress was reportedly cast as the Material Girl hitmaker in 2022 but months later, the project was placed on hold, and its fate has been up in the air ever since.
However, Julia said in a new interview on Monday that it is ‘supposed to still happen’.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps star had been a fan of Madonna when she was growing up so knew she had to audition as soon as she heard the project was in the pipeline.
She told the SmartLess podcast of her initial involvement with the biopic: ‘It just came about… like I knew that they were doing a project, making a movie about it, and then I went out to audition. I kind of just wanted to see if I could do it.’
The 31-year-old actress has no dance training, so she had to learn how to move and then show off her skills in front of Madonna herself – as well as sing with her – and ‘convince’ the 66-year-old that she could do both.
Naturally, a very daunting situation – but the Inventing Anna star decided to channel the Vogue hitmaker during the nerve-wracking process.
Explaining that she asked herself what Madonna would do, she added: ‘Which is like convince you that she deserves to be in this room. And I owned it. I was like, “You can take it or leave it, but if you leave it, if I leave, then that’s on you.”’
In July last year, Madonna revealed she was working on a new draft script for the biopic, which is expected to be titled Who’s That Girl in a nod to the singer’s 1987 movie and song of the same name.
She will also be directing the movie.
Madonna took to Instagram and posted a collection of photos of herself working on the script with the caption: ‘I Need A-lot of Bandz to make this ……….. OKAY. (Story of my life) [sic].’
The film was announced in 2020, and Oscar-winning Juno scribe Diablo Cody and Snow White’s Erin Cressida Wilson were brought on to help the Like A Virgin hitmaker with the script and screenplay.
However, in January 2023, it was revealed the film had been paused indefinitely at Universal Pictures.
After the movie was shelved, Madonna went on her Celebration Tour in October 2023 to mark four decades in the music industry, but reportedly resumed work on the project once she got back home in June in the hopes she could finalise the script with Universal.
An industry insider previously told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre column: ‘Madonna has only just finished her tour but in her mind it is on to the next project and fulfilling her dream of getting the biopic made.
‘Julia is still her lead actress and they have remained in touch for the past year, talking through ideas. They are committed to creating some magic.’
The duo had also hyped up fans by being photographed together at a celebrity party in May that year, chowing down on chips, while Julia also appeared onstage during the tour with Madonna in December 2023.
The Papa Don’t Preach chart-topper had explained she wanted to both direct and write the movie because she wanted complete control over the project.
She told Variety: ‘I’ve had an extraordinary life, I must make an extraordinary film.
‘It was also a pre-emptive strike because a lot of people were trying to make movies about me. Mostly misogynistic men.
‘So I put my foot in the door and said, “No one’s going to tell my story, but me.”’
Madonna would be following a line of musical biopics produced in recent years, including Queen film Bohemian Rhapsody, Sir Elton John movie Rocketman and the underperforming Better Man, based on the life of Robbie Williams.
Garner is currently in cinemas as the Silver Surfer opposite Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach in the MCU’s reboot of The Fantastic Four.
It’s enjoyed a strong opening, raking in $218million (£163.3m) already, surpassing the summer’s other superhero flack in DC Studio’s Superman from director James Gunn.
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