Amazon mentioned on Sunday that its Prime Video streaming service would launch a “behind the scenes” documentary about Melania Trump’s life.
The movie will head to film theaters and stream on Amazon Prime within the second half of this yr, the corporate mentioned in an announcement. Mrs. Trump shall be an government producer of the documentary, which began filming in December, the month after her husband, Donald J. Trump, gained the presidential election.
Amazon mentioned it was “excited to share this actually distinctive story.”
The corporate and its founder, Jeff Bezos, who additionally owns The Washington Put up, had a rocky relationship with Mr. Trump throughout Mr. Trump’s first presidential time period. However in current months, Amazon and Mr. Bezos have taken steps to restore it. The tech big mentioned final month that it might donate $1 million to the president-elect’s inaugural fund, becoming a member of Meta and executives of another Silicon Valley corporations in writing checks to the inaugural committee. Mr. Bezos has mentioned he’s “very optimistic” about Mr. Trump’s new time period in workplace and is raring to work together with his administration on decreasing regulation.
Throughout his first presidential time period, Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Bezos due to his newspaper’s political protection and questioned whether or not the U.S. Postal Service was charging Amazon too little for transport. Amazon, in flip, accused Mr. Trump of utilizing “improper stress” on the Pentagon to disclaim the corporate a cloud-computing contract.
Amazon now seems to be keen to show the web page.
In October, The Put up mentioned it might cease endorsing presidential candidates, a choice made by Mr. Bezos, and didn’t publish an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris that had already been drafted. Mr. Bezos defended his determination, saying newspaper endorsements “create a notion of bias.”
Final week, Ann Telnaes, a Put up cartoonist, mentioned she was resigning after the paper’s opinion part rejected a cartoon that confirmed Mr. Bezos and three different expertise executives bending the knee to a statue of Mr. Trump whereas providing the president-elect luggage of cash. David Shipley, The Put up’s opinion editor, mentioned the cartoon was rejected as a result of the part had printed a column on the identical topic and had already scheduled one other one for publication. He mentioned he had requested Ms. Telnaes to rescind her resignation, saying, “The one bias was in opposition to repetition.”
Amazon didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the efforts by the corporate and Mr. Bezos to forge nearer ties to Mr. Trump. The Trump transition crew additionally didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Mrs. Trump has lately proven extra willingness to share particulars about her life with the general public. Final yr, she printed a memoir that described her profession as a mannequin, marriage to Mr. Trump and time within the White Home. It grew to become a No. 1 New York Occasions finest vendor. Her position as government producer of the documentary means that she could have some affect over the way it depicts her life.
Brett Ratner, a director and producer behind films like “Rush Hour” and “The Revenant,” will direct the documentary. Mr. Ratner has stored a decrease profile lately after questions have been raised about his conduct. In 2011, he resigned as co-producer of the Oscars broadcast after he used an anti-gay slur at a public occasion. In 2017, Mr. Ratner was accused of sexual misconduct by six ladies in an article printed by The Los Angeles Occasions, claims that he denied.
Amazon, which could have unique rights to the film about Mrs. Trump, mentioned it might reveal extra particulars on the venture as filming progressed and it accomplished launch plans.