Decker

Well this is certainly interesting. Never heard of this personal a biopic from a Superstar before.

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/m...al-1234770633/

Madonna to Direct Her Biopic, Co-Written by Diablo Cody for Universal

Looks like Madonna is her own lucky star.

In what seems to be an unprecedented creative move, the pop icon will direct a film about her life and career — one that’s been heavily teased on her social media accounts, through script sessions with her Oscar-winning co-writer Diablo Cody.

That Madonna, whose staggering five-decade career has seen countless musical reinventions and a run at filmmaking and acting, would direct her own journey from New York City’s slums to the heights of global stardom is beyond rare. The super-famous are often involved peripherally as creative consultants and executive producers in their own adapted stories (like recent awards players like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Rocketman”).


The untitled film has landed at Universal Pictures, under the wing of filmed entertainment group chair Donna Langley and producer Amy Pascal, whose eponymous company is set up on the Universal lot. A production timeline is unknown and principal cast has yet to be announced.

“I want to convey the incredible journey that life has taken me on as an artist, a musician, a dancer — a human being, trying to make her way in this world,” Madonna said in a statement. “The focus of this film will always be music. Music has kept me going and art has kept me alive. There are so many untold and inspiring stories and who better to tell it than me. It’s essential to share the roller coaster ride of my life with my voice and vision.”

Langley praised Madonna as “the ultimate icon, humanitarian, artist and rebel.”

“With her singular gift of creating art that is as accessible as it is boundary-pushing, she has shaped our culture in a way very few others have,” Langley said.

Sara Zambreno and Guy Oseary will executive produce. Senior executive VP of Production Erik Baiers and director of development Lexi Barta will oversee the project on behalf of the studio.

The project is a reunion of sorts of Madonna and Pascal, who made the sentimental favorite “A League of Their Own” together in 1992.

“This movie is an absolute labor of love for me,” Pascal said. “I have known Madonna since we made ‘A League of Their Own’ together, and I can’t imagine anything more thrilling than collaborating with her and Diablo on bringing her true-life story to the big screen with Donna and our partners at Universal.”

Madonna has previously directed two features, the 2008 drama “Filth and Wisdom,” and the 2011 Golden Globe-winning “W.E.” Her acting credits include “Desperately Seeking Susan,” “Dick Tracy,” and 1996’s “Evita,” which earned her a Golden Globe for best actress.

Her musical bonafides include the tiles of best-selling female music artist in history, with 335 million records worldwide, and highest-grossing solo touring artist of all time. Madonna was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, and counts 658 prominent global award nominations and 225 wins.

Cody is an Academy Award winner for best original screenplay for “Juno.” She also wrote and produced “Jennifer’s Body,” and Charlize Theron’s “Young Adult.”

E Unit

Uh....that’s okay. I’ll pass on Madonna - and Diablo Cody for that matter.

Decker

Hollywood-Elsewhere blog post :

How No-Holds-Barred?

Today’s big story is about Madonna inking a deal with Universal to direct a biopic about herself, based on a script co-written by herself and Diablo Cody. Matt Donnelly‘s Variety story says the untiled pic will evolve under the wing of Uni’s filmed entertainment group chair Donna Langley and producer Amy Pascal, whose eponymous company is set up on the Universal lot. No casting announcements or production timeline.

This is the first time in history that any big-name talent has announced such an intention. And of course, the idea invites skepticism. Intriguing biopics have to about more than just “this happened and that happened,” and what hope is there, honestly, that Madonna, who would be a first-time feature helmer, will be interested in conveying some kind of warts-and-all saga about who she is or was deep down? An approach, in short, that might push the usual biopic boundaries.

Official Madonna statement: “I want to convey the incredible journey that life has taken me on as an artist, a musician, a dancer…a human being trying to make her way in this world. The focus of this film will always be music. Music has kept me going and art has kept me alive. There are so many untold and inspiring stories and who better to tell it than me? It’s essential to share the roller-coaster ride of my life with my voice and vision.”
Madonna and producer-mixer Jellybean Benitez, sometime around the release of her 1983 debut album.Three or four years ago Madonna made it clear that she was no fan of Elyse Hollander‘s Blonde Ambition, a top-rated Black List script about her struggle to find success as a pop singer in early ’80s Manhattan. I became an instant fan of this script, and declared in a 12.16.16 piece that “it’s going to be a good, hard-knocks industry drama when it gets made — basically a blend of a scrappy singing Evita mixed with A Star Is Born.”

At the very least Madonna and Cody should re-read Blonde Ambition and borrow as much as they legally can from it. Or, better yet, hire Hollander to come aboard as a co-writer.

Blonde Ambition “is a flinty, unsentimental empowerment saga about a tough cookie who took no prisoners and was always out for #1,” I wrote. “No hearts and flowers for this mama-san.

“A Star Is Born‘s logline was basically ‘big star with a drinking problem falls for younger ingenue, she rises as he falls and finally commits suicide, leaving her with a broken heart.’ Blonde Ambition is about a hungry, super-driven New York pop singer who, like Evita Peron (whom Madonna portrayed in ’96), climbs to the top by forming alliances with this and that guy who helps her in some crucial way, and then moves on to the next partner or benefactor, but at no point in the journey is she fighting for anything other than her own success, and is no sentimentalist or sweetheart.

Alternate: Our very own hungry, hustling, hard-charging singer, living on tips and dimes in NYC in ’81 and ’82, finally gets a leg-up when she cuts a deal with (and then falls in love with) Jellybean Benitez, who remixes her initially troubled debut album (which contained “Borderline” and “Lucky Star”) and makes it into a hit…but like with a previous boyfriend, bandmate DanGilroy, she eventually pushes Jellybean aside in favor of a new producer for her second album, Like A Virgin (’84). So Jellybean is the Vickie Lester of this tale, his heart broken at the end by a woman he loved but who finally loved only herself.

Decker

BTW : Wells is wrong there, this won't be Madonna's feature debut. She shot the poorly received Edward and Wallis Simpson movie W.E. .


How could this movie NOT be titled Lucky Star? How is there even a question? That is a much better-fitting rock biopic title than either Bohemian Rhapsody or Rocketman were.

dex14

Universal bought a script a few years ago and Madonna was pissed that someone else was telling her story. I guess she got that torpedoed.
We had a thread about: https://forum.dvdtalk.com/movie-talk...na-biopic.html

windom

I'm guessing that she feels that her stardom is due to much more than luck.

Dan

Side bar, but I genuinely don't understand why anyone takes this man seriously.

Anyway, good for Madonna. Should be interesting to see what happens with this. Not a fan of Cody, but

TGM

no.

GoldenJCJ

Madonna directing her own biopic has to be the most vainglorious heard in, well, ever.

Holy shit!

Crocker Jarmen

I thought the same thing, and then questioned myself as to why this attitude seems to only apply to film. I have trouble thinking of anyone in the literary world called vain for writing their autobiography. It's usually encouraged.

Decker

People who are hating on Cody, did you guys not like Juno? Because I thought that movie was great and the screenplay was sharp.

TomOpus

I'd be more interested in her early years rather than her latter ones.

OldBoy

as long as she doesn't cast herself or Rosanna Arquette as the lead, i'm fine with it.

ddrknghtrtns

Why not?

Dan

Far as I can tell, there's only two comments about Cody and I wouldn't say either are "hating on" her.
That said, Juno was... fine. I liked it at the time, but it didn't hold up with repeat viewings for me.
I've seen a few other things Cody was involved in (Jennifer's Body, Tully, Young Adult, and a few episodes of United States of Tara) and only the latter struck me as particularly good.
I'd just say her work is fine but not my cup of tea, hence why I'm not sure she's the right fit for a Madonna biopic of all things. Time will tell, though, and I hope it ends up being good.

edit: writing the above, I realize that the Reitman/Cody collaborations are pretty big deals apparently. Reitman has, generally, disappointed me since TYFS, I guess.

Drexl

I'd go with Live to Tell. Although Material Girl or even Ray of Light could also work.

devilshalo

Express Yourself can also fit the bill. Too bad Who's That Girl? was already used.

Decker

Because she's 62. Normally I would say there is no chance a woman in her 60s could play an up and coming 20 year old singer/drummer in New York. However with this particular director, who knows?

But no, it won't be her in the role.

Mabuse

While my first instinct was to laugh and be dismissive, my mind immediately went to Howard Stern. He didn’t direct, but he definitely had a strong creative hand and stared in his own autobiographical film and it was pretty damn good.


Here’s my creative pitch:

Do the whole thing in a combination of cel animation and rotoscope animation. Get as many of the real people as you can to voice their younger selves (Warren Beatty, Sean Penn, David Fincher, whoever). Rely a lot on archive stuff like interviews, media events, live performances, music videos, BODY OF EVIDENCE and rotoscope over it to blend it with the Cel animation that tells the behind the scenes stories. A big post-modern media collage.

JeffTheAlpaca

Wow just when you thought her ego was not big enough.

I guess this might be her final big attempt to stay relevant.

Couldn't she do a biggest hits tour? That might bring back some fans.

Daytripper

This. I could not sit through a whole biopic about Madonna if you paid me. And definitely not one directed by her. What a fucking ego. She was dying to be a movie star in the 80's and 90's. Everyone saw how that turned out. Same with her directorial debut. Which literally no one saw. She's also been clinging on to relevancy for the past 15 years in the music industry, working with current producers and younger artists. And there nothing is wrong with that. But it didn't work. She also fucked up her face with the awful plastic surgery, those ridiculous hip implants (looking like Kim Kardashian's grandmother) and wearing that stupid gold grill on her teeth. You're 62. She needs to just do another proper pop album and a tour where she's also not full of herself. Start on time (not 11:00 PM) and put down the guitar.

Coral

That's always the impression I get from her - always trying so damn hard to get back in the spotlight.
She'll try to latch onto anything that gives her that chance.

Ash Ketchum

Has anyone else in history directed their own biopic?

As an aside, I liked TRUTH OR DARE (1991) very much and saw it multiple times, but it's the last thing involving Madonna I ever saw. And that was 29 years ago.

Decker

You didn't see Evita? It was really well done.

IBJoel

While my initial reaction is "Wow, that's uh... something." It actually strikes me as not terribly different than an autobiography. Though I'd wager it would be "cleaned up" considerably.