James Packer and Brett Ratner’s Ratpac to launch Melania Trump documentary
James Packer’s revived Hollywood hit machine, Ratpac, has been granted unprecedented access to Melania Trump including at the White House and the Mar-a-Lago mansion.
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James Packer is back.
The billionaire media mogul and entrepreneur, who sensationally retreated from the business world to focus on his health, has rebooted his Hollywood hit machine RatPac with a blockbuster documentary on Melania Trump.
It is understood the notoriously private First Lady has already been in talks with Packer and his filmmaking partner Brett Ratner and the doco will feature never before seen insights into life in the Trump White House.
Of all the countless intrigues and conspiracy theories about Donald Trump, who will be sworn in as President later this month after a historic landslide comeback, his relationship with the former model has been perhaps the most tightly guarded secret.
The Daily Telegraph understands RatPac has been granted unprecedented access to Melania behind closed doors, including not just at the White House but at the Trumps’ Mar-a-Lago mansion and even Trump’s Boeing 757 dubbed “Trump Force One”.
It is understood a major global streaming service has already paid tens of millions of dollars for the project.
The resurrection of RatPac also has echoes of Packer’s late father Kerry’s notorious business acumen.
Kerry Packer famously sold the Nine Network to 80s tycoon Alan Bond for more than $1 billion in 1987, only to buy it back for a quarter of that three years later as Bond’s empire collapsed.
Packer Sr famously quipped at the time: “You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime.”
Likewise James Packer two years ago quietly bought back in to the production powerhouse he co-founded more than a decade ago for what an insider described as “peanuts”.
In the late 2000s and early 2010s RatPac Entertainment co-financed some of the biggest movies on the planet, including Avatar, the X-Men and Night at the Museum franchises, The Lego Movie franchise and Mad Max: Fury Road just to name a few.
But as Packer gradually withdrew from business to focus on his health in recent years it has receded from big productions.
Now it is believed that Packer and Ratner have repartnered and the once richest man in Australia is all in on relaunching his filmmaking career, but this time with a tighter focus on costs and less cash being splashed about on projects that fail to make returns.
The move will no doubt shock many in Hollywood, as well as around the globe, after Packer’s very public retreat from his media and gambling empires.
He sold out of Nine and its associated entities in 2012 to focus on Crown Resorts and sold out of Crown a decade later.
While Crown was bedevilled by allegations of impropriety at the time, Packer has more recently won praise for going public with his mental health battles.
Many assumed that was his curtain call. Now it appears it was just an intermission and he is coming back for Act Two.
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Originally published as James Packer and Brett Ratner’s Ratpac to launch Melania Trump documentary
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