Now that the financially successful Celebration Tour is well behind her, pop icon Madonna took to social media to not only announce that she's back at work on her long-delayed biopic, but also revealed the film's official title.
via: EW
Madonna has returned to work on new material (girl) for her previously delayed, self-directed biopic movie about her early life as a future global icon — which Entertainment Weekly can confirm Inventing Anna and Ozark actress Julia Garner is still attached to lead.
The pop superstar shared Tuesday to Instagram a glimpse at herself once again working on the film's screenplay while seated behind a typewriter, with one photo clearly showing that the previously untitled film is now called Who's That Girl — a clear reference to both Madonna's 1987 comedy film and accompanying No. 1-charting soundtrack single of the same name.
"I Need A-lot of Bandz to make this………..OKAY," Madonna captioned the post, also posting a martini emoji to compliment a video clip she shared of a similar glass spinning atop a turntable while she worked on the script.
Madonna first revealed in September 2020 that she and Oscar-winning Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody were working on an early script for the project, which eventually gestated under the working title Little Sparrow.
Cody and Madonna finished work on the project in 2021, with the screenwriter departing the film to work on other projects. Madonna then partnered with Erin Cressida Wilson — who's apparently credited on the rewritten version Madonna posted about on Tuesday, as indicated by the "ECW" credit on the title page — to rework the movie.
The "Like a Virgin" and "Hung Up" performer previously said that the film would follow her "struggle as an artist trying to survive in a man's world as a woman, and really just the journey," which she described at the time as a "happy, sad, mad, crazy, good, bad, and ugly" tale of the making of a superstar.
Milestones she said she hoped to cover in the movie's narrative included the pop icon's rise through the entertainment industry in New York City, writing "Like a Prayer," filming Evita, and her connection with Jose Gutierez Xtravaganza and Luis Xtravaganza, two members of New York City's Harlem ballroom scene that played a monumental role in the success of her 1990 smash song "Vogue."
EW previously confirmed that Garner was officially cast to play Madonna before the project was delayed and subsequently removed from Universal's slate in early 2023 so Madonna could embark on her global Celebration tour.
A source told EW at the time that Madonna still planned to make the film at some point, though her focus would remain on the tour throughout 2023. Madonna fused both worlds, however, when she invited Garner to join her on stage for a segment of the show in New York City in December.
In January 2022, EW additionally exclusively reported that Uncut Gems star Julia Fox met with Madonna to discuss a potential role in the movie as Madonna's lifelong friend, actress Debi Mazar, who first met the performer inside an elevator at the famed New York City Danceteria nightclub in the '80s.
Fox expressed interest in portraying Mazar in a June 2024 interview with IndieWire.
“I mean, I’d still love to but I genuinely don’t know,” Fox told the outlet, confirming that she was formally cast to play Mazar in sequences that involved "going back, you know, when they’re like 19 and they first meet."
EW has reached out to representatives for Madonna for more information on the biopic.
While I would love for Madonna to capitalize off the success of the tour with new music, I'm even more excited that she's back at work on the biopic.
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