“Phantom Thread” director Paul Thomas Anderson and composer Jonny Greenwood have formally requested that a piece of music from their Oscar-nominated 2017 drama be removed from filmmaker Brett Ratner’s “Melania” documentary about First Lady Melania Trump.
“It has come to our attention that a piece of music from ‘Phantom Thread’ has been used in the ‘Melania‘ documentary,” the duo wrote in a statement first obtained and reported by 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 follows the First Lady in the 20 days leading up to her husband Donald Trump’s second presidential inauguration in Jan. 2025, was released in theaters on Jan. 30. It received overwhelmingly negative reviews, including one from TheWrap critic William Bibbiani, who deemed it a “tasteless, tedious, criminally shallow propaganda puff piece.”
Greenwood and Anderson have been close collaborators ever since the former composed the score for the latter’s Oscar-winning 2007 epic “There Will Be Blood.” The Radiohead musician has composed the score for every Anderson film since, including “Phantom Thread” and last year’s “One Battle After Another.”
Greenwood earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score back in 2018 for his work on “Phantom Thread.” He was again nominated this year for his score for “One Battle After Another.” Anderson, meanwhile, is in the midst of an ongoing sweep through this year’s awards season.
In January, the filmmaker took home the Golden Globe awards for Best Screenplay and Best Director for “One Battle After Another,” as well as the Critics Choice awards for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. This past Saturday, he also nabbed the top prize at the 2026 DGA Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for “One Battle After Another.”
Both Anderson and his film are currently the favorites to win Best Director and Best Picture at this year’s Oscars.
For its part, “Melania” has grossed $13.5 million at the box office across its first two weeks. That is an impressive number for a documentary. It would be even more so, though, had Amazon MGM not paid a whopping, reported $40 million to acquire the film and a companion straight-to-streaming docuseries. The studio reportedly spent another $35 million on the film’s theatrical marketing campaign.
“Melania” marks Ratner’s first film since he was accused of sexual assault in 2017.
