Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson have demanded that music from the movie Phantom Thread be removed from the Melania documentary, saying it was licensed by Universal Pictures without their permission.
“It has come to our attention that a piece of music from Phantom Thread has been used in the Melania documentary. 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,” the duo said in a statement released on Monday.
Greenwood cited a portion of the score he created for Anderson’s 2017 period drama being included in Melania, the documentary from Amazon MGM, without his permission. Melania had an international release via copyright holder Universal Pictures.
The Phantom Thread song in question is “Barbara Rose,” which Greenwood composed for the movie. Brett Ratner’s documentary about Melania Trump was expected to end its second weekend in theater with a cumulative box office of $13.4 million. The documentary chronicles the 20 days before the 2025 presidential inauguration.
That’s after the studio spent $75 million to shoot and market the documentary. The Melania film, next set to stream on Prime Video, includes musical portions from The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean.” Other needle drops include “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” Ravel’s “Bolero” and “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Universal Pictures for comment on the take-down request from Greenwood and Thomas Anderson.
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