Amazon said Sunday that its Prime Video streaming service will release a “behind-the-scenes” documentary about the life of Melania Trump.
The film will be released in theaters in the second half of this year and stream on Amazon Prime, the company said in a statement. Mrs. Trump will be an executive producer of the documentary, which will be filmed by her husband, Donald J. It began in December, the month after Trump won the presidential election.
Amazon said it was “excited to share this truly unique story.”
The company and its founder, Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, had a rocky relationship with Mr Trump during Mr Trump’s first presidential term. But in recent months Amazon and Mr. Bezos have taken steps to repair it. The tech giant said last month it would donate $1 million to the president-elect’s inaugural fund, joining executives from Meta and some other Silicon Valley companies to deliver checks to the inaugural committee. Mr. Bezos has said he is “very optimistic” about Mr. Trump’s new term in office and looks forward to working with his administration on reducing regulation.
During his first presidential term, Mr Trump criticized Mr Bezos because of his newspaper’s political coverage and questioned whether the US Postal Service was charging Amazon too little for shipping. Amazon, in turn, accused Mr Trump of using “undue pressure” on the Pentagon to deny the company a cloud-computing contract.
It appears Amazon is now eager to turn the page.
In October, The Post said it would stop endorsing presidential candidates, a decision taken by Mr. Bezos, and did not publish its endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, which had already been drafted. Mr. Bezos defended his decision, saying that the newspapers’ support “creates a perception of bias.”
Last week, Post cartoonist Ann Telnes said she was resigning after the newspaper’s opinion section rejected a cartoon that depicted Mr. Trump while offering the president-elect a bag to Mr. Bezos and three other technology executives. He was shown kneeling before the statue. Wealth. David Shipley, opinion editor for The Post, said the cartoon was rejected because the section had published a column on the same topic and already had another column scheduled for publication. He said he had asked Ms. Telnes to rescind her resignation and said, “the only bias was against recusal.”
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the company and Mr. Bezos’s efforts to build a closer relationship with Mr. Trump. The Trump transition team also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mrs. Trump has recently shown a greater willingness to share details about her life with the public. Last year, she published a memoir that described her career as a model, her marriage to Mr Trump and her time in the White House. It became a No. 1 New York Times best seller. His role as executive producer of the documentary suggests that he will have some influence over how it portrays his life.
Brett Ratner, director and producer of films like “Rush Hour” and “The Revenant,” will direct the documentary. Mr. Ratner has kept a low profile in recent years after questions were raised about his behavior. In 2011, he resigned as co-producer of the Oscar telecast after using an anti-gay slur at a public event. In 2017, Mr. Ratner was accused by six women of sexual misconduct in an article published by The Los Angeles Times, claims he denied.
Amazon, which will have exclusive rights to the film about Mrs. Trump, said it would reveal more details on the project as filming progresses and release plans are finalized.