Melania Trump documentary to be released by Amazon
5 January 2025, 18:44
The film is the latest connection between Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump.
Melania Trump is to be the subject of a new documentary distributed by Amazon Prime Video.
The streaming arm of the tech giant has exclusive licensing rights for a streaming and theatrical release later this year, the company said on Sunday.
Filming is already under way on the documentary, directed by Brett Ratner.
The company said in a statement that the film will give viewers an “unprecedented behind-the-scenes look” at the incoming first lady and promised a “truly unique story”.
The former and now future first lady – whose husband takes office on January 20 – also released a self-titled memoir late last year.
The film is the latest connection between Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Donald Trump. The company in December announced plans to donate a million dollars (£800,000) to the president-elect’s inauguration fund, and said it would also stream Donald Trump’s inauguration on its Prime Video service, a separate in-kind donation worth another million dollars.
The two men had been at odds in the past. During his first term, Mr Trump criticised Amazon and railed against the political coverage at the Washington Post, which Mr Bezos owns.
But he has struck a more conciliatory tone recently as Amazon and other tech companies seek to improve their relationship with the incoming president.
In December, Mr Bezos expressed excitement about potential regulatory cutbacks in the coming years and said he was “optimistic” about Mr Trump’s second term.
Mr Bezos in October did not allow the Post to endorse a presidential candidate, a move that led to tens of thousands of people cancelling their subscriptions and protests from journalists with a deep history at the newspaper.
This weekend, a cartoonist quit her job after an editor rejected her sketch of the newspaper’s owner and other media executives bowing before the president-elect.
The film is the first project Ratner has directed since he was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, including actress Olivia Munn, in the early days of the MeToo reckoning in November 2017.
Ratner, whose lawyer denied the allegations, directed the Rush Hour film series, Red Dragon and X-Men: The Last Stand.
Fernando Sulichin, an Argentine filmmaker, is executive producing the film, which began shooting in December.
The president-elect’s third wife has been an enigmatic figure since her husband announced he was running in the 2016 election. She had sought to maintain her privacy even as she served as first lady, focusing on raising their son Barron and promoting her Be Best initiative to support the “social, emotional and physical health of children”.
She appeared at her husband’s campaign launch event for 2024 and attended the closing night of the Republican National Convention last summer, but has otherwise stayed off the campaign trail, though the demands of again being first lady may dictate a higher public profile after Inauguration Day.
