RADIOHEAD GUITARIST JONNY Greenwood has asked for his music to be removed from the Melania Trump documentary, after discovering it was used without his consultation.
Greenwood, who composed the score for Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2017 film Phantom Thread, said a piece of that music appeared in Melania, a feature-length profile of the former US first lady released by Amazon MGM Studios.
In a statement reported by Variety, Greenwood and Anderson said Universal Pictures had failed to consult Greenwood about the third-party use of the music, which they said breached his composer agreement.
“As a result, Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have asked for it to be removed from the documentary,” the statement said.
Greenwood does not personally own the copyright to the Phantom Thread score, but has been a frequent collaborator with Anderson, composing music for films including There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice and Licorice Pizza.
The documentary, directed by Brett Ratner, follows Melania Trump in the 20 days leading up to Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January last year.
Amazon MGM reportedly spent around $40m (€33.65m) acquiring the film and an accompanying docuseries, along with an estimated $35m (€29.45m) on marketing, an unusually large investment for a documentary.
Despite that spend, the film has struggled to make an impact globally, including here and in the United Kingdom.
Melania took just over €37,600 at the Ireland UK box office on its opening weekend according to figures from the British Film Institute, ranking 29th among releases at the time and earning less than a re-release of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
It opened in 155 cinemas, averaging around €245 per site.
In Ireland, the film was showing in just two Dublin cinemas, where fewer than 35 tickets were sold across its opening weekend when The Journal checked seat availability on the film’s opening day.
Critical reception has also been muted.
The Guardian awarded the film zero stars, while The Telegraph described it as a “branding exercise” with “North Korea-style propaganda”.
Writing in the Irish Times, Donald Clarke called it “shameless propaganda that could put you to sleep”.
Amazon MGM has not yet commented publicly on Greenwood’s request to have the music removed.
