Producer Marc Beckman denies Phantom Thread score used without permission in Melania doc

WASHINGTON (TNND) — “Melania” producer Marc Beckman called the claim by the creators of the 2017 film “Phantom Thread” that the production used their score without permission a “blatant lie.”

Beckman, a longtime senior adviser to First Lady Melania Trump and a producer of the documentary, pushed back on allegations made by director Paul Thomas Anderson and composer Jonny Greenwood of the band Radiohead that the piece “Barbara Rose” was improperly used in the documentary.

It’s a blatant lie,” Beckman told Breitbart News. “We have a legal right and permission to use every song and piece of music in the film. We have the legal rights to use it. We’ve done everything the right way. We followed protocol. We respect artists. We compensated everyone for their music.”

The controversy began after Anderson and Greenwood issued a statement, published Monday by Variety, asserting that music from Phantom Thread appeared in the documentary without proper consultation.

“It has come to our attention that a piece of music from Phantom Thread has been used in the ‘Melania’ documentary,” Thomas and Greenwood said in a statement. “While Jonny Greenwood does not own the copyright in the score, Universal failed to consult Jonny on this third-party use which is a breach of his composer agreement. As a result Jonny and Paul Thomas Anderson have asked for it to be removed from the documentary.”

Beckman dismissed the accusation as unfounded and maintained that the production team secured all necessary rights.

“We have legally binding, fully executed contracts in place to use every song in Melania,” Beckman said, adding “This is just ridiculous.”

Despite the controversy, Beckman said the documentary is performing well in theaters. According to estimates shared by Amazon MGM Studios, Melania brought in $2.37 million in North American theaters during its second weekend, pushing total domestic sales past $13 million.

“We’re very pleased with the film’s performance in its second weekend in theaters,” Beckman said. “We crossed $13 million in sales and we hit the predicted benchmark for our sales projections for Super Bowl weekend almost exactly with what we predicted.”