Marc Beckman, the producer of Melania, has responded to Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, after the latter asked for his Phantom Thread music to be removed from the film about the First Lady.
It was reported earlier this month that both Paul Thomas Anderson and Greenwood had requested that their Phantom Thread music be removed from the Melania Trump documentary.
Titled Melania, the film follows the 20-day period before her husband, Donald Trump, was sworn into office for the second time last January.
One segment sees music from the 2017 film – directed by Anderson and featuring a score from Greenwood – played. The two then reached out and claimed that it was a “breach” of their composer agreement.
“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,” their statement read. “As a result Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have asked for it to be removed from the documentary.”
Now, a producer of Melania has spoken out about their request. Initially, he said to Breitbart News that the claims that the music was not properly licensed was “ridiculous” and “a blatant lie.”
He has since spoken to Variety, and reaffirmed that the music is staying in the documentary.
“Regardless of all the nonsense back and forth in the media and the politics and all that, we wanted to create something that was unique as a story that has certainly never been told before,” he said.
He also highlighted how both his side and Greenwood’s side have mostly the same understanding, and that Greenwood’s issue is more towards the film studio for not letting him know that his music was going to be reused.
“It’s funny — Radiohead is one of my all-time favourite bands. For them to have come out publicly and distanced themselves, I think that’s just part of the unfortunate time we’re living in,” Beckman added.
“We went out and created a nice film that doesn’t get into any kind of political policy or anything like that. The music at that moment is so perfect, honestly, I was so thrilled to be able to use it.”
He went on to add that he knew it was legally-safe to use the music in the documentary. “Obviously, my background is as a lawyer. We work with the best lawyers; this is Melania Trump. We spent top dollars for all that music, and we’re thrilled to have that song included in the film.
“If they’re trying to distance themselves from us, for political reasons, that’s just unfortunate. But, honestly, I’ll still remain a fan and listen to their music every single day.”
Of whether or not he would consider removing the Phantom Thread music from Melania out of a gesture of goodwill, he replied: “No, of course not. Please tell him he’s welcome to call me if he wishes to discuss. But that song is in the film forever, regardless of the infrastructure which delivers the content.”
Amazon, Disney, Netflix and Paramount Pictures all bid for the streaming rights of Melania, and while Disney offered about $14million (£10.2million), it lost out to Amazon’s $40million (£29.3million) bid – the highest amount ever paid for a documentary.
The First Lady said the warm reception to her 2024 self-titled memoir prompted her to come up with the idea.
The Brett Ratner-directed film opened at Number 29 at the UK box office – making just under £33,000 in its first week, however, around that same time, figures emerged that it had earned $9.5million (£7million) globally at the box office from a budget of $40million, plus a reported $35million (£25.6million) extra in marketing.
It is a particularly high figure for a documentary, and some have contested the legitimacy of the stats, with The Daily Beast reporting accusations of “fake tickets sales” made to boost the movie’s fortunes.
It currently stands at an 11 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.