Jonny Greenwood asks to remove his music from ‘Melania’

In the controversial documentary “Melania”, produced by Amazon studios and costing 75 million dollars, there is also the music composed by Jonny Greenwood for Paul Thomas’ film “The Hidden Thread” (2017). Radiohead’s guitarist and director have called for it to be removed.
The documentary directed by Brett Ratner and released last week grossed around 7 million dollars on its debut: a large sum for the documentary, released in a large number of theaters – but marked by controversy because it cost an out-of-market amount and impossible to recover from theater takings, and therefore considered a sort of gift to the President of the United States. According to the Associated Press, Amazon spent 40 million dollars to acquire the rights to the documentary and another 35 million for the promotion campaign: the film recounts the days before Trump’s inauguration as president for the second term from his wife’s point of view.

“Although Jonny Greenwood does not hold the copyright to the soundtrack, Universal did not consult Jonny regarding this use by third parties, in violation of his contract as a composer,” reads the note released by Greenwood. “For this reason, Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have requested that the music be removed from the documentary.”

As reported by Billboard – which tried to contact the production without receiving a response. It is not clear how the song was authorized or what legal tools Greenwood and Anderson can use to request its removal. Billboard also reminds us that soundtrack composers usually do not hold the rights to their works but sometimes important authors like Greenwood may have clauses that allow them to intervene on the use of the music.