‘Melania’ producer responds to Jonny Greenwood’s music removal request: “A blatant lie”
Marc Beckman, the producer of the new Melania documentary, has responded to claims made by Jonny Greenwood and Paul Thomas Anderson, who called for a section of music originally from the film Phantom Thread to be removed from the controversial project.
Greenwood and Anderson claimed that Universal, which was one of the companies behind Phantom Thread, did not seek permission from Greenwood to use the music in the new Brett Ratner-directed documentary, which follows the First Lady in the 20 days running up to Donald Trump’s 2025 inauguration.
Their original joint statement explained: “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.”
Now, Beckman, a close confidant of Melania and the producer of the project, has spoken out about their allegedly untrue claim. He told the right-wing publication, Breitbart News, as per The Independent: “It’s a blatant lie. We have a legal right and permission to use every song and piece of music in the film.”
He added, “We have the legal rights to use it. We’ve done everything the right way. We followed protocol. We respect artists. We compensated everyone for their music.”
The producer stressed that notion, insisting, “We have legally binding, fully executed contracts in place to use every song in Melania. This is just ridiculous.”
His heated backlash adds to the air of controversy around the film; it recently emerged that Ratner has been named in the Epstein files. In turn, the filmmaker spoke out in his own defence, claiming that the woman he was seen with in the documents was his partner at the time.
The project has also 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.
Far Out has contacted Universal Music Group for a comment regarding the licensing process at the heart of the public dispute.
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