Madonna’s rise to stardom will be the focus on a new feature film in development at Universal.
Following the singer as she arrives in New York City from her native Detroit, Blond Ambition will document the superstars life in the late ’70s and early ’80s and she hustles to get music career off the ground.
Elyse Hollander’s script was number 1 last year on Hollywood’s ‘Black List’, an annual ranking of yet-to-be produced scripts that have the industry in a buzz.
Michael De Luca, who produced Fifty Shades of Grey for Universal, is attached to produce along with Brett Ratner’s company RatPac Entertainment. John Zaozirny of Bellevue Productions also will a producer.
Madonna’s early days in New York included time training as a dancer with some of the city’s best known choreographers as well as time in underground rock bands like Emanon and The Breakfast Club.
The singer also posed as a nude model and made undergound films in her early days. In the late ’70s Madonna signed to a French management company and spent some time living in Paris before returning to New York.
Her first single Everybody was released in 1982, she famously gave a demo tape of her first pop tunes to Danceteria DJ Mark Kamins who played the tune the next evening, and then helped her secure a record deal.
Much has been written about the singers early days in NYC. Madonna’s brother Christopher Ciccone published a book Life with My Sister Madonna detailing his time as backing dancer, dresser and right hand man to the superstar. The pair later fell out and became estranged.
In his book Ciccone recounts how his sister spent time hanging out with artist like Keith Harring and Jean-Michel Basquiat and dated DJ John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez.
Author J. Randy Taraborrelli has also published a biography on the singer that details her time in NYC in the early days which includes stories about her working as a coat check girl at the famous Russian Tea Rooms, hanging out with actress Debbi Mazar, and working her way through a succession of boyfriends.
OIP Staff
