FEATURE:
Madonna at Sixty-Four
PHOTO CREDIT: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for A+E
Future Lovers: An Upcoming Biopic and Two Big Anniversaries
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I keep adding…
IN THIS PHOTO: Julia Garner
different features to this run about Madonna. I have finished now, but there is always something happening in her world! With various bits of news around her remixing Beyoncé’s BREAK MY SOUL, and the Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones album, there is no stopping the Queen of Pop. I am not a superfan, though I am fascinated by her work, legacy and how she has earned respect and success on her terms. I wanted to nod to the rest of the year. There is a biopic in the works. Julia Garner has been cast to play Madonna. As it will be helmed and directed by Madonna, she is in control of the narrative. Bustle explain more in this article:
“When you think of women who are unapologetically themselves, Madonna’s name comes straight to mind. The 63-year-old’s career spans decades, and she still very much on top. In fact, just recently, Madonna and Beyoncé collaborated on a remix of the latter’s new single, “Break My Soul.” Up next for the Queen of Pop is a biopic on her life. And it just so happens that she’ll be at the helm of the project.
In a recent interview, Madonna told Variety: “I’ve had an extraordinary life, I must make an extraordinary film. It was also a preemptive 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 announced the biopic on her website back in 2020, where she said: “I want to convey the incredible journey that life has taken me on as an artist, a musician, a dancer, and a human being trying to make her way in this world.” Relaying her plans, she continued: “The focus of this film will always be music. Music has kept me going and art has kept me alive.”
In 2021, Madonna addressed the story of her life once more during a chat with talkshow host Jimmy Fallon. She exclaimed: “The reason I’m doing it is because a bunch of people have tried to write movies about me, but they’re always men.”
“I read that Universal was doing a script… they wanted my blessing, and I read it. It was the most hideous, superficial crap I’ve ever read. This [has] happened a couple of times. So, finally, I just threw down the gauntlet.”
Madonna has been hands-on throughout the casting process for her biopic, too. She reportedly had actors Julia Garner and Florence Pugh go through an 11-hour choreography boot camp during a lengthy audition process, before giving the role to Inventing Anna actor Garner”.
I am not sure what the biopic is called. Maybe Blond Ambition (that was the name of her hugely successful 1990 tour). Now that an actress has been chosen to play her, it seems like it will be a close working relationship between Madonna and Julia Garner. There have been attempts to put Madonna’s life on the screen, but never that truthful or with the right narrative. It is risky Madonna directing the biopic, as there is a lack of subjectivity and editorial interference. It may be a little self-serving, but one hopes it is candid and is truthful. In terms of periods of her career, Garner is the spitting image of Madonna around 1986/1987! Maybe there will be a focus on the 1980s. Whatever she decides to do, it is going to be one of the most scrutinised biopics ever. It is shaping up to be very interesting indeed! As she approaches her sixty-fourth birthday, it is clear that there is nobody else in the music world like Madonna! Rather than the biopic signalling the end of her career, it is a long-overdue filmic representation of one of the most influential artists ever. It does beg the question as to whether it will spur her to record new material or do another tour. So many eyes will train Madonna’s way after the biopic is released. What might we get from a future fifteenth studio album?
Two anniversaries this year look back at very different points of her career. On 20th October, 1992, Madonna released Erotica. Her fifth studio album, it courted an amount of controversy because of its subject matter. The album was released simultaneously with Madonna's first book publication, Sex. It is a coffee table book containing explicit photographs featuring the singer. Maybe there was a feeling that there was an overload of explicitness and flesh. I guess Erotica is a bit chillier than previous Madonna albums, but it is a classic that contains some of her best material. The thirtieth anniversary is one that should be marked. I am not sure whether a thirtieth anniversary edition is planned. I would love it if there was and, on the same day, the Sex book was reissued! Also celebrating a big anniversary is Madonna’s debut single, Everybody. That turns forty on 6th August. A couple of weeks before Erotica’s thirtieth, we look back to 1982. That moment when a future Pop icon put her debut single into the world. Again, I am not sure whether there is an anniversary vinyl release or anything tied around Everybody’s fortieth. It is a great single that maybe a lot of people have not heard. I know Madonna will post something about both anniversaries closer to the time. On 16th August she turns sixty-four. Just under forty years since her debut single came out, Madonna is still going strong and there are so many possibilities for the future. The biopic will introduce her music to a new generation. I hope there is another greatest hits collection and maybe a new book or autobiography coming along. A maverick idol and icon, there is no doubt that the brilliant Madonna is…
A truly unique artist.