Jonny Greenwood asks for his ‘Phantom Thread’ music to be removed from ‘Melania’ documentary
Jonny Greenwood and Paul Thomas Anderson have called for a section of music originally from the film Phantom Thread to be removed from the Melania documentary.
The composer and director of the 2017 film have spoken out after part of the score first made for the movie appeared in the recent documentary on the US First Lady, charting her in the 20 days running up to Donald Trump’s January 2025 inauguration.
However, it has now been alleged that Universal, who were one of the companies behind Phantom Thread, did not seek permission from Greenwood to use the music in the documentary, and therefore the pair have now spoken out.
In a statement shared to Variety via Greenwood’s representative, they said: “It has come to our attention that a piece of music from Phantom Thread has been used in the Melania documentary.”
They added: “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.”
It comes amid growing negativity surrounding the film, which plummeted at the box office, making only $13.35 million in the US to date, compared to its $75 million budget, becoming the most expensive documentary production in history for Amazon MGM Studios.
On top of this, the film has come under even more fire after it emerged that its director Brett Ratner has been named in the Epstein files, prompting the filmmaker to speak out in his own defence, claiming that the woman he was seen pictured with in the documents was his partner at the time.
Rotten Tomatoes has also been forced to clarify in recent days that overly positive reviews for the film seen on its site have not been generated by bots, with it receiving a 99 per cent score on the Popcornmeter.
The company told Newsweek: “Reviews displayed on the Popcornmeter are VERIFIED reviews, meaning it has been verified that users have bought a ticket to the film.”
Elsewhere, for Greenwood, nine years on from the release of Phantom Thread, he is back receiving acclaim for his work with Anderson, having composed the score for One Battle After Another and receiving an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Original Score’.
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