Secrets of Madonna’s doomed biopic revealed and why Sydney Sweeney snubbed lead role amid Madge’s ‘circus antics’
RISING Hollywood star Sydney Sweeney snubbed the lead role in Madonna’s doomed biopic because she could see the writing on the wall, a source has told The U.S. Sun.
The Euphoria actress, 25, was wooed by the Queen of Pop during the casting of the movie last year as she went up against the likes of Florence Pugh.
Ultimately Sydney lost out to Ozark star Julia Garner, 29, but she had the last laugh when Universal Pictures canned the ill-fated project in January.
It came after Madonna, 64, announced a major world tour starting this summer but the decision is understood to have been taken before that.
A well-connected Hollywood source told The U.S. Sun that Sydney and her advisers “smelled the dumpster fire from a mile away”.
The insider said: "Beyond some initial meetings and talks, Sydney managed to steer clear and not get caught in the quicksand of the Madonna movie over the last two years.
“She wasn't surprised by the recent revelation that the movie is being dropped by Universal and dry-docked until Madonna finishes her new tour, at the very earliest.
“Sydney and her team saw this outcome from a long way away and unlike Julia and Florence, she did not clear her schedule to make room for training, auditioning for and shooting the movie.”
First green-lit in 2020, the film was set to be directed and co-written by the Like a Virgin star herself.
The casting process was described as a boot camp where actresses were drilled with grueling 11-hour choreography sessions directed by Madonna.
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They also underwent readings with Madonna and further auditions where they had to sing in front of her.
Oscar-winning Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody was initially brought on to pull the together.
But in April 2021, The U.S. Sun revealed that Cody, 44, had quit after finding Madonna too difficult to work with.
Playwright and author Erin Cressida Wilson was later hired to work on another draft of the script.
But The U.S. Sun revealed in January how the lack of a final draft of the script when casting got underway was seen as a major red flag by many in Hollywood - including Sydney and her team.
The U.S. Sun’s Hollywood insider explained: “Sydney wasn't opposed to playing Madonna per se, she just likes to work and especially with a hit TV series like Euphoria taking up eight months of the year for her, she has tried to cram as much movie work as possible into her breaks between seasons.
“Her reps would call that a 'scheduling conflict' but the bottom line here is that Sydney did not want to sit around waiting for Madonna and her writers to finish a script and get the movie green-lit.
“Instead, she made three movies last year while others were waiting around for Madonna to get the movie approved.
“Sydney smelled this dumpster fire from a mile away and made the right choice not to chase this role as hard as her competitors did.
“They wasted a ton of time and effort and Sydney didn’t."
The U.S. Sun previously reported that the development of the project left Universal an estimated $10m to $12m in the hole.
It means that if another studio wants to pick the movie up, they would have to reimburse Universal for their expenses just to have the right to start again from square one.
The U.S. Sun revealed that studio execs had been left baffled by Madonna “circus antics” on social media while she was supposed to be working on the movie.
The Michigan-born legend’s many outbursts included a video showing her licking water out of a dog bowl and the bizarre “confession” that she has never been circumcised.
The U.S. Sun also reported that Madonna may be plotting a fly-on-the-wall documentary of her upcoming Celebration tour as revenge for the biopic fiasco.
The movie’s cancellation kickstarted what has been a very tough time for the star this year.
Last month she was hit by savage criticism of her appearance at the Grammys.
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Some fans claimed that her face looked grotesquely bloated from apparent plastic surgery.
And last week she faced heartbreak after the death of her oldest brother Anthony Ciccone at the age of 66 after he had battled alcoholism and homelessness.
