Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood wants his music removed from the much-mocked Melania Trump documentary

(Image credit: Steve Granitz/WireImage | Amazon)

Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood is demanding that his music be removed from Amazon's new Melania Trump documentary.

Greenwood has written music for 12 films, but did not contribute music to the Melania doc. However, a section of music from the score that the guitarist wrote for director Paul Thomas Anderson's 2017 film Phantom Thread appears in Brett Ratner's new film about America's First Lady, and neither Greenwood nor Anderson is happy about this.

“It has come to our attention that a piece of music from Phantom Thread has been used in the Melania documentary,” the pair say 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.”

Melania, which according to Variety, cost more than just about any documentary in history, has received a tepid critical response, to put it politely.

"How do you capture a subject whose feet are more expressive than her personality?" the New Yorker asks. "After a while, Melania starts to feel like an OnlyFans account crossed with that meme of Kim Jong Un visiting factories."

"It’s one of those rare, unicorn films that doesn’t have a single redeeming quality," The Guardian's Xan Brooks declares in a zero-star review, revealing that he was the sole paying customer watching the film at a UK screening on its opening day.

"Melania Is an Unbelievable Abomination of Filmmaking" reckons The Daily Beast.

Despite such savage reviews, and despite persistent rumours that not all ticket sales for the film have been made by actual flesh-and-blood humans, Variety reports that Melania has earned $13.35 million domestically after two weekends of release, which is a decent showing at the US box office.

Remarkably, despite an 8% per cent critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 99% approval rating from audience members.

MELANIA | Official Trailer - YouTube

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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.

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