The INSIDER Summary:
- Universal Studios is making a movie about Madonna's life.
- Madonna is not happy about it.
- She's posting enraged statuses on Instagram, calling the movie's producers and writer liars.
A major movie studio is making a biopic of Madonna.
And she's not happy about it.
Universal's Madonna biopic, "Blond Ambition," will cover Madonna's life in the early 1980s, when she was a young musician trying to make her first album. It's based on a script by Elyse Hollander that topped the 2016 Black List, a list that circulates around Hollywood that ranks the best unproduced screenplays.
On Instagram, Madonna has made her displeasure clear.
"Nobody knows what I know and what I have seen," Madonna posted two days ago. "Only I can tell my story. 📚Anyone else who tries is a charlatan and a fool. Looking for instant gratification without doing the work. This is a disease in our society."
And yesterday, she posted a snake-emoji-filled post about people involved in the project: "Universal Studios🐍 Brett Ratner 🐍and Rat and Elyse Hollander 🐍🐍🐍 Lies Have No Legs."
The script has numerous innaccuracies, according to Madonna. She appears baffled and enraged that it would become a movie.
"Why would Universal Studios want to make a movie about me based on a script that is all lies???" she wrote in another, now-deleted Instagram post, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "The writer Elyse Hollander should write for the tabloids."
There is a chance the movie won't get made. Universal hasn't given it a green light yet, according to The Hollywood Reporter. But at the same time, two major producers, Michael De Luca and Brett Ratner, are already attached to the project, indicating that Universal is serious about it.
One of the biggest legal hurdles for the movie, though, is in Madonna's favor. To use Madonna's early songs in the movie, Universal would have to secure the rights to use them. Given Madonna's stature, she probably has the right to her songs herself, according to a music lawyer cited in The Hollywood Reporter.
Not including the songs runs the risk of the movie appearing exploitative, like the Lifetime movie "Britney Ever After," which was widely seen as such.
