Amazon is getting into business with Melania Trump. And Brett Ratner.
The studio has confirmed that its Prime Video has exclusively licensed an upcoming documentary film on the former and incoming first lady that will 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 receive both a theatrical and streaming release and will be participatory in every sense given that Melania Trump will executive produce alongside New Element Media’s Fernando Sulichin. Filming began in December 2024, one month after former President Donald Trump won a decisive victory to return to the White House.
Amazon is planning a release in the second half of 2025.
Perhaps the most controversial element of the new project involves Ratner, who hasn’t worked on major Hollywood productions since 2017, when the “Rush Hour” helmer was accused of sexual misconduct by six women in a Los Angeles Times expose. Warner Bros., where he had a first-look deal, severed ties with him. (He denied the claims.) 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 eventually dropped their claims.) At the time, he said: “In light of the allegations being made, I am choosing to personally step away from all Warner Bros.-related activities. I don’t want to have any possible negative impact to the studio until these personal issues are resolved.”
He also was deeply involved in a sprawling sex scandal that led to Kevin Tsujihara stepping down from his CEO post at 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 finance deal with Warner Bros.” (Ratner was formerly partnered with Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a $450 million slate financing deal between their RatPac-Dune Entertainment and Warners.)
But friends of Ratner have told Variety that he saw a pathway back by directing a documentary, which requires little capital and no distributor until much later in the process. Typically, major studios like Amazon don’t get involved in documentaries at the filming stage and instead acquire a finished film when it bows at a major film festival. Ratner had flirted with directing a documentary about two-time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins.
It is 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 primary location. The former and future president visited the set at least once. Ratner is said to have been living part of the time in his native Miami since his career was upended by scandal and travels in the same social circles as the Mar-a-Lago set.
An Amazon spokesperson says: “Prime Video will be sharing more details on the project as filming progresses and release plans are finalized. We are excited to share this truly unique story with our millions of customers around the world.”
As a producer, Sulichin has worked repeatedly with Sean Penn on films like “Flag Day” and “Superpower” as well as Oliver Stone on documentaries about Edward Snowden and Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva.