Members of the team behind the Melania Trump documentary are hoping the film bombs at the box office, according to a report.
Insiders have suggested the filming of the Brett Ratner-helmed documentary, "Melania," was chaos behind the scenes. Part of the problem was getting access to Melania and the Trump family, but some issues were caused by Ratner himself, according to Rolling Stone. The film director has not worked on a project since 2014's Hercules and was subject to a number of sexual assault and harassment allegations in 2017.
One insider, speaking to Rolling Stone, said, "People were worked really hard. Really long hours, highly disorganized, very chaotic."
Another added that the shoot "wasn't easy money. It was very difficult because of the chaos that was around everything. … Usually [for a documentary] it’s like, ‘Oh, follow the subject.’ Well, it’s Melania Trump. With the first lady and Secret Service, you can’t just do things you usually do."
Other members of the production team now regret putting their name on the documentary, with one person saying they are "much more alarmed now than I was a year ago."
Another source who spoke to Rolling Stone suggested almost two-thirds of the crew who worked on the film in New York had requested their name be pulled from the credits of the documentary.
A third anonymous source who worked on Melania said, "I feel a little bit uncomfortable with the propaganda element of this. But Brett Ratner was the worst part of working on this project."
Another source suggested they hope the film does not perform well. They said, “Unfortunately, if it does flop, I would really feel great about it.”
Amazon MGM Studios said they greenlit the project because it would be of interest to audiences. A spokesperson told Rolling Stone, "We licensed the film for one reason and one reason only - because we think customers are going to love it."