Amazon will pay as much as $40 million to license Brett Ratner’s documentary about Melania Trump, according to a new report.
The documentary, directed by Ratner, was announced Sunday and will be released in the second half of 2025, during her husband’s administration.
Melania, 54, is the executive producer of the production, and Jeff Bezos’ film and television studio is reportedly spending the big bucks on licensing rights.
After the announcement, sources familiar with the matter revealed the amount Puksaying the deal also includes a follow-up docuseries.
It is unclear what Melania will be paid personally for the project.
They will all be released on Prime Video, while the Ratner release will also be released in theaters for some time, the insiders said.
The next series will reportedly contain two or three episodes, with Melania heavily involved. Filming of the documentary started last month.
Disney and Paramount have reportedly lost streaming rights after a bidding war with Amazon, which is owned by the world’s second-richest man. Neither Netflix nor Apple participated, the sources said.
Amazon will pay as much as $40 million to license Brett Ratner’s documentary about Melania Trump, according to a new report
The documentary is being directed by Rush Hour’s Brett Ratner and filming began in December
“We are excited to share this truly unique story with our millions of customers around the world,” an Amazon spokesperson added of the production. More details will be shared later.
The high-profile partnership comes at a time when Washington is the biggest story in the world, and a day after aides told Status that Bezos’ Washington Post, for which he paid a quarter of a billion dollars, is about to be hit. with layoffs.
One source said the layoffs will only affect the newspaper’s “business division,” and another said they will be “profound” and affect “dozens of employees.”
Both said they will take place sometime this week as part of an ongoing effort to cut costs ahead of the new administration.
Months earlier, weeks before the election, the billionaire broke with tradition and blocked The Washington Post’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris.
The move led to more than 250,000 readers immediately canceling their subscriptions, after which Bezos wrote an op-ed defending the decision.
In it, the 60-year-old cited growing “distrust” of the media and said it was the “principled” and “right” decision for the Post not to get involved.
“What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias,” he wrote at the time, after decades of promoting Democrats.
Jeff Bezos’ film and television studio reportedly beat out Disney and Paramount for streaming rights
The expensive partnership comes as media companies continue their efforts to capitalize on Donald Trump’s impending presidency
“We are excited to share this truly unique story with our millions of customers around the world,” an Amazon spokesperson added of the production. More details will be shared later
The Melania documentary will give viewers an “unprecedented look behind the scenes” into her life, which began in 1970s Slovenia.
She was then known as Melanija Knavs and started working as a fashion model at the age of 16.
She changed the spelling of her name to Melania Knauss as she sought more work across Europe, before moving to the US in 1996. There she worked as a model in Manhattan, then the territory of the future president.
The couple met in 1998 before marrying in 2005, after which she gave Trump his fifth and final child, Barron, in 2006.
Trump emigrated to the US in 1996 to work as a model in Manhattan and was introduced to her future husband in 1998.
She published a memoir, Melania, a few months ago, as media companies across the country continue to try to capitalize on her husband’s impending presidency.
It has topped the New York Times best-selling list since its release in early October, before her husband’s big win over Harris.
Since then, media companies ranging from MSNBC to The Walt Disney Corporation have attempted to kiss the president-elect’s proverbial ring, with Bezos seemingly taking note of the changing tide in the days prior, with the nixed endorsement.
Melania, who was born in 1970 in what is now Slovenia, published a few months ago a memoir with the same title Melania
Bezos was spotted with Lauren Sanchez at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion in December, where they enjoyed dinner
The same went for Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, who notably refused to support Trump, Harris and Joe Biden in the run-up to the election.
Asked about the issue over the summer, he instead praised Trump for surviving his then-recent assassination attempt.
“Seeing Donald Trump stand up after being shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my life,” Zuckerberg, 40, said. during an interview with Meta. Headquarters in Menlo Park.
“On some level, it’s hard for an American not to get emotional about that spirit and that fight,” the Facebook founder added.
“And I think that’s why a lot of people like him.”
Now, following Trump’s victory, Zuckerberg — who has been accused by the president-elect of conspiring against him in the 2020 election — is in the midst of acquiescing to years of Republican Party complaints about former policies.
Just this morning, in a five-minute video message shared on his personal Facebook profile, he admitted that Meta and Facebook had censored conservative opinions in recent years.
“We are going back to our roots and focusing on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free speech on our platforms,” he said in the self-filmed statement.
Melania returns to Washington, DC this month after her husband won re-election in November. Pictured: The couple walking the route during their first inaugural parade on January 20, 2017
“More specifically, we will abolish fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the US.”
Days earlier, he appointed UFC boss Dana White, a known friend of Trump, to Meta’s board after appointing former Lib Dem UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg as the company’s president.
This is a development story; check for updates.