Marc Beckman, one of the producers of the recently-released Melania Trump documentary Melania, has disclosed the identity of some of the artists who refused permission for their music to be included in the film.
His comments come in the wake of Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s request that music he wrote for the score to director Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2017 film Phantom Thread be removed from the Amazon documentary about America’s First Lady.
“It has come to our attention that a piece of music from Phantom Thread has been used in the Melania documentary,” the pair said earlier this month in a statement given to film industry bible Variety. “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.”
In a follow-up interview with Variety, Beckman insists that there is zero chance of Greenwood’s music being erased from the film – “that song is in the film forever” he states – but acknowledges that the film-makers were unable to obtain music from some A-List artists whose personal political views do not match those of the Trump administration.
“There was music that we tried to get, but sadly, there were politics to it,” he admits. “For example, the guys from Guns N’ Roses split down the middle politically. There was a beautiful song we wanted to use, and one of the guys – I don’t want to name, it’s not fair – said, ‘You got it. Go.’ And the other one was basically like, ‘There’s just no way.’ We needed everybody’s approval to get it in the film. So Guns N’ Roses was definitely a disappointment for us; we all have a lot of respect for Guns N’ Roses.”
While Beckman does not disclose which band member refused permission, Axl Rose has previously gone on record with his “disdain” for the Trump administration, calling it a threat to our “democracy”.
Beckman also reveals that he was blocked from using a Prince song in the film.
“I think Prince sold the rights to Primary Wave,” he says. “And the Primary Wave guys were like, ‘Oh yeah, we’d be happy to go ahead and give you guys the rights to this Prince song,’ But in that instance, it’s my understanding that the deal was such that the estate now needs to approve what Primary Wave does with it. Literally we were ready to go, and and this lawyer that manages the estate was like, ‘Prince would never want his song associated with Donald Trump.’ And we’re like, ‘But it’s not a Donald Trump film! He comes into the movie once in a while, but this is all about Melania. It’s not political.’ And that guy blocked it. It’s so ridiculous.”
“It’s disappointing when people put politics so far ahead,” he added, “and that happened a little bit with the film, for sure.”
One song that does feature in the film is The Rolling Stones‘ Gimme Shelter, which Beckman claims was approved by Mick Jagger. “He gave us his blessing, and we were thrilled about that one,” he says.
Melania, which according to Variety, cost more than just about any documentary in history, was met with brutal critical reviews upon its release, but currently has a 98% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes from film-goers.
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