[DigitalToday reporter Chi-gyu Hwang] As Amazon put $75 million into a documentary about U.S. first lady Melania Trump and bribery suspicions surfaced, the production team strongly rebutted the claims, The Verge reported on Thursday.
Amazon paid $40 million to the company producing the Melania documentary and spent an additional $35 million on promotion alone.
Director Brett Ratner (브렛 래트너) said he made a feature-length film and a three-part series. He said the cost of music usage was higher than for “Rush Hour.” He stressed that 3 of the world’s top cinematographers were hired and 80 people were deployed on the first day of filming.
But the New York Times said the $35 million marketing budget for the Melania documentary, which finished filming in 20 days, was 10 times the average for major documentaries, and reported it was high.
According to the Wall Street Journal, of the $40 million Amazon paid as a licence fee for the Melania documentary, Melania herself is expected to personally take $27 million. Melania argued that the work is not a documentary but a “creative experience.”
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr