The Melania Trump documentary, ‘Melania’, is making headlines, as it should, because it, after all, is the documentary about the First Lady of the United States of America. However, ‘Melania’ is not grabbing attention for the reasons you’d expect. Forget glowing reviews or blockbuster ticket sales; instead, the documentary is running into back-to-back troubles.Let’s break down what’s actually happening with this high-profile project and why it’s become such a magnet for controversy.
The issues with ‘Melania’
The fight over the music rights is reportedly the latest hurdle. Director Paul Thomas Anderson and music composer Jonny Greenwood, known for their work on the Oscar-nominated film ‘Phantom Thread’, demanded that a chunk of Greenwood’s score be removed from the film. As E! News reported, they claimed that Greenwood’s contract with Universal means Amazon needed to ask before using his music, even though he doesn’t own the rights. This legal dispute has raised a significant amount of eyebrows about how the filmmakers pulled everything together, and whether they played a little too fast and loose with industry rules.Then there’s the price tag that comes along with the documentary. With Amazon backing the documentary with so much money—nearly USD 40 million for the rights and USD 35 million on marketing—it’s widely speculated whether or not the deal was less about making a great documentary and more about cozying up to the Trump administration, especially with Amazon’s huge business interests on the line.
‘Melania’: All about the Melania Trump documentary
‘Melania’, the Melania Trump documentary, follows the First Lady of the US in the hectic 20 days before Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration. Brett Ratner, who is marking his big return after years away from Hollywood, helmed the documentary as the director. Despite this scale of expenditure, the documentary has found itself in a storm of controversy, as well as criticism.
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