Amazon mentioned on Sunday that its Prime Video streaming service will 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 can be an govt producer of the documentary, which began filming in December, the month after her husband, Donald J. Trump, received the presidential election.
Amazon mentioned it was “excited to share this actually distinctive story.”
The firm and its founder, Jeff Bezos, who additionally owns The Washington Post, had a rocky relationship with Mr. Trump throughout Mr. Trump’s first presidential time period. But 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 firms 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 keen to work along with his administration on decreasing regulation.
During 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 delivery. 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 Post mentioned it might cease endorsing presidential candidates, a call made by Mr. Bezos, and didn’t publish an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris that had already been drafted. Mr. Bezos defended his choice, saying newspaper endorsements “create a notion of bias.”
Last week, Ann Telnaes, a Post 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 Post’s opinion editor, mentioned that 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 towards 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 group additionally didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Mrs. Trump has not too long ago proven extra willingness to share particulars about her life with the general public. Last yr, she printed a memoir that described her profession as a mannequin, marriage to Mr. Trump and time within the White House. It turned a No. 1 New York Times greatest vendor. Her position as govt producer of the documentary means that she may have some affect over the way it depicts her life.
Brett Ratner, a director and producer behind motion pictures like “Rush Hour” and “The Revenant,” will direct the documentary. Mr. Ratner has stored a decrease profile lately after questions had been raised about his habits. 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 Times, claims that he denied.
Amazon, which may have unique rights to the film about Mrs. Trump, mentioned that it’s going to reveal extra particulars on the undertaking as filming progresses and it finalizes launch plans.