Director Paul Thomas Anderson, 55, and Radiohead lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, 54, are demanding answers about the Melania documentary.
In a statement on Monday, the pair called for Melania Trump’s documentary, Melania, to remove a piece of music pulled from their acclaimed 2017 film Phantom Thread.
“It has come to our attention that a piece of music from Phantom Thread has been used in the Melania documentary,” the two said in a joint statement released by Greenwood’s representation on Monday. “While Jonny Greenwood does not own the copyright in the score, Universal failed to consult Jonny on this third-party use which is a breach of his composer agreement. As a result, Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have asked for it to be removed from the documentary.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Amazon Studios and director Brett Ratner for comment.
The music misuse is yet another nail in the coffin for Melania Trump’s Amazon-MGM-backed documentary, which has failed to recoup a significant portion of its staggering budget. Through Friday, the documentary earned $11.8 million at the domestic box office, a figure well shy of its $75 million budget, including marketing costs.
After Amazon MGM purchased the Brett Ratner-directed documentary for $40 million in a bidding war, they injected a further $35 million into its marketing. The documentary opened in 2,000 theaters nationwide, and Amazon and MGM added a further 200 theaters leading up to the Super Bowl after the film overachieved on its opening weekend. The documentary earned $7.2 million in its first weekend, but that figure dropped by 67% this past weekend.
For the documentary, Ratner, 56, pulled an extended excerpt from “Barbara Rose,” a song from Phantom Thread‘s Oscar-nominated score.
The Daniel Day-Lewis-starring film was the fourth of seven collaborations between the director and the Radiohead guitarist. Greenwood is contending for another Academy Award for his work on One Battle After Another.
The song was originally used by Anderson for a scene in which the wealthy benefactor to Day-Lewis’s fashion designer, Reynolds Woodcock, passes out in a drunken stupor in one of his hand-sewn dresses.
Melania has been the subject of significant scrutiny and controversy, including suspected online review-bombing and review-boosting. On Letterboxd, the film ranks among the worst in history, while on Rotten Tomatoes, it boasts a near-perfect 99% audience approval rating.
The Daily Beast’s own Kevin Fallon called the film “terrible.”
“Were it not for scattered laughter-inducing scenes—most of which, I would gather, were not intentionally humorous—I would rule it an abomination," Fallon wrote.
The documentary is currently screening in thousands of theaters nationwide and will soon be available to stream on Amazon Prime.
