Amazon goes into business with Melania Trump. And Brett Ratner.
The studio confirmed that its Prime Video has secured an exclusive license for an upcoming documentary film about the former and new first lady to be directed by Ratner. A studio spokesperson calls the film “an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look” at the first lady and third wife of Donald Trump.
The film will be released both in theaters and on streaming and will be participatory in every way given that Melania Trump will be the executive producer alongside Fernando Sulichin of New Element Media. Filming began in December 2024, a month after former President Donald Trump won a decisive victory to return to the White House.
Amazon plans a release in the second half of 2025.
Perhaps the most controversial element of the new project concerns Ratner, who has not worked on a major Hollywood production since 2017, when the “Rush Hour” director was accused of sexual misconduct by six women in an article from the Los Angeles Times. Warner Bros., with whom he had reached an initial agreement, severed ties with him. (He has denied the allegations.) Separately, a former assistant at a major talent agency accused him of rape in a Facebook post, which Ratner denied. (He sued the accuser for defamation, and both sides ultimately dropped their lawsuits.) At the time, he said, “In light of the allegations made, I am choosing to personally withdraw from all activities related to Warner Bros. I don’t want to have any possible negative impact on the studio until these personal issues are resolved.
He was also deeply embroiled in a sprawling sex scandal that led Kevin Tsujihara to resign as CEO of Warner Bros. in 2019. In that case, text messages between Ratner and a young autistic actress named Charlotte Kirk revealed that she felt she had been “used as the icing on the cake for your financial deal with Warner Bros.” (Ratner previously partnered with Trump Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a $450 million financing deal between their RatPac-Dune Entertainment and Warners.)
But Ratner’s friends said Variety that he saw a way back in making a documentary, which required little capital and no distributors until much later in the process. Typically, major studios like Amazon don’t get involved with documentaries at the shooting stage and instead acquire a completed film when it bows at a major film festival. Ratner had flirted with making a documentary about two-time Academy Award winner Anthony Hopkins.
It’s unclear how Ratner convinced the first lady to trust him with her life story. Ratner directed the universal thriller “Tower Heist”, which used Trump International Hotel & Tower as the film’s main location. The former and future president visited the set at least once. Ratner has reportedly lived some of his time in his hometown of Miami since his career was upended by a scandal and travels in the same social circles as the Mar-a-Lago set.
An Amazon spokesperson said: “Prime Video will share more details about the project as filming progresses and release plans are finalized. We are thrilled to share this truly unique story with our millions of customers around the world.
As a producer, Sulichin has worked numerous times with Sean Penn on films like “Flag Day” and “Superpower” as well as with Oliver Stone on documentaries about Edward Snowden and Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva.
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News Source : variety.com