Amazon is paying an astonishing $40million to license Brett Ratner’s documentary about Melania Trump, according to a new report.
The documentary, directed by Ratner, was announced Sunday, and is set for release in the second half of 2025 during her husband’s administration.
Melania, aged 54, is the executive producer of the production, and Jeff Bezos’s film and television studio is said to be spending a significant amount of money on licensing rights.
Following the announcement, sources familiar with the matter revealed the amount to Puck, saying the deal also includes a follow-up docuseries.
It’s unclear what Melania is being paid personally for the project.
The film and docuseries will appear on Prime Video, with the film getting some time in theaters as well, the insiders said.
The docuseries is expected to have two or three episodes, with Melania playing a significant role. Filming for the documentary commenced last month and will continue throughout Trump’s presidency.
Reports suggest that Disney and Paramount were unsuccessful in securing the streaming rights following a fierce bidding war with Amazon, which is owned by the world’s second-richest man. According to sources, both Netflix and Apple did not participate in the bidding process.
Amazon is paying an astonishing $40million to license Brett Ratner’s documentary about Melania Trump , according to a new report
The documentary will be directed by Rush Hour’s Brett Ratner, and began filming back 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 on.
The high-profile partnership comes at a time where Washington is the biggest story in the world, and a day after staffers told Status that Bezos’s Washington Post, for which he paid a quarter-of-a-billion dollars, is set to be hit with layoffs.
One source said the layoffs will only impact the paper’s ‘business division’, and another detailed that they ‘will be deep,’ affecting ‘dozens of employees.’
Both said they will occur sometime this week as part of an ongoing bid to cut costs before the new administration.
Months before, weeks before the election, the billionaire broke 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 penned an op-ed defending the decision.
In it, the 60-year-old cited growing ‘distrust’ of media, saying it was the ‘principled’ and ‘right’ decision for the Post to not weigh-in.
‘What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias,’ he wrote at the time, after decades of promoting Democrats.
Jeff Bezos ‘s film and television studio reportedly beat out Disney and Paramount for streaming rights
The high-priced partnership comes as media companies continue to scramble to capitalize on Donald Trump’s upcoming 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 on
The Melania documentary, meanwhile, will give viewers an ‘unprecedented behind-the-scenes look’ at her life, which began in 1970s Slovenia.
Then known as she Melanija Knavs, she began 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 throughout Europe, before relocating to the US in 1996. There she worked as a model in Manhattan, then the stomping grounds of the future president.
The pair met in 1998 before marrying in 2005, after which she gave Trump his fifth and final child, Barron, in 2006.
Trump immigrated to the U.S. in 1996 to work as a model in Manhattan and was introduced to her future husband in 1998.
She published a memoir, Melania, just a few months ago, as media companies across the country continue to try to capitalize on her husband’s upcoming presidency.
It has been at the top of 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 notice of the shifting tide in the days before, with the nixed endorsement.
Melania, who was born in what is today Slovenia in 1970, published a memoir, eponymously titled Melania, just a few months ago
Bezos is seen with Lauren Sanchez at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion back in December, where they enjoyed a dinner
The same went for Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, who notably refused to endorse Trump, Harris and Joe Biden in the build-up in the election.
Asked about the matter over the summer, he instead praised Trump for surviving his then recent assassination attempt.
‘Seeing Donald Trump get up after getting shot in the face and pump his fist in the air with the American flag is one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen in my life,’ Zuckerberg, 40, said during an interview at Meta HQ in Menlo Park.
‘On some level as an American, it’s like hard to not get kind of emotional about that spirit and that fight,’ the Facebook founder added.
‘And I think that that’s why a lot of people like the guy.’
Now, after Trump’s win, Zuckerberg – who has been accused by the president-elect of plotting against him in the 2020 election – is in the midst of acquiescing to years of GOP gripes over former policies.
Just this morning, in a five minute video message shared to his personal Facebook profile, he admitted Meta and Facebook censored conservative opinions in years prior.
‘We’re going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms,’ he said in the self-filmed statement.
Melania is returning to Washington, D.C. this month after her husband won reelection in November. Pictured: The couple walk the route during their first inaugural parade on January 20, 2017
‘More specifically, we’re going to get rid of fact-checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X, starting in the US.’
Days before, he named UFC boss Dana White, a well-known friend of Trump’s, to Meta’s board of directors, after nixing former Lib Dem UK Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg as the firm’s president.
The abrupt policy upheaval from the pair of billionaires was recently satirized by a Washington Post cartoonist, Ann Telnaes, with a sketch showing a group of media executives bowing before Trump while offering him bags of money.
Present was Post owner Bezos and Mickey Mouse to represent Disney.
She said she wrote that the cartoon was intended to criticize ‘billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump.’
She quit after an editor at the paper refused to run the sketch, which was created Friday.
In December, weeks after Trump’s win, Walt Disney Co. reached a settlement in a defamation case filed by the president-elect against ABC News, after George Stephanopoulos, the star ABC News anchor, said on the air that Mr. Trump had been found “liable for rape” in a New York civil trial.
The Disney-owned outlet
This is a developing story; please check for updates.
