Jeremy Strong as the fixer Roy Cohn and Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump in The Apprentice, set to debut in US cinemas before the presidential election. Photo / Tailored Films
Jeremy Strong as the fixer Roy Cohn and Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump in The Apprentice, set to debut in US cinemas before the presidential election. Photo / Tailored Films
After months of delays and threatened legal action by the former president, the movie starring Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong will open before the election.
The release of Ali Abbasi’s film, which follows Trump (Sebastian Stan) as a young New York real estate magnate mentored by lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), was initially met with roadblocks.
Trump’s team has threatened legal action against the film’s creators since the docudrama’s buzzy worldpremiere at Cannes Film Festival in May. A lawyer for the former president sent a cease-and-desist letter to the movie’s team accusing them of defamation and illegal election interference.
And ex-Washington Commanders owner and Trump backer Daniel Snyder, who’s the principal lender for the movie’s primary US production company, Kinematics, reportedly didn’t like The Apprentice and contributed to a stall in securing the movie’s US distribution.
But the highly anticipated film has secured its US distributor, Briarcliff Entertainment, and a US theatrical release date, less than a month before election day and a week before its theatrical release in the UK and Ireland. No one associated with the movie would comment on the deal, but the film’s other producers reportedly bought out Kinematics’ stake.
The Apprentice is a docudrama that depicts Trump's early days as a young New York real estate magnate. Photo / Getty Images
All signs point to the film being a surprise screening at the Telluride Film Festival in the mountains of Colorado this weekend. It’s not on the line-up that Telluride released on Thursday, but the festival has a reputation for hosting surprise screenings of big talkers or films that have just made splashy premieres at the Venice Film Festival.
Tom Ortenberg, chief executive of Briarcliff Entertainment, is at Telluride, according to a person involved in the production. When the Washington Post tried to contact to two other people involved in the film, they said they couldn’t talk because they were on a plane, although they would not specify to where.
Despite speculation, it will not be a late addition to the line-up for the Toronto International Film Festival, which starts on Thursday, or the New York Film Festival, which begins on September 27 at Lincoln Center, across Central Park and 10 blocks north of Trump Tower, said the sources.
Briarcliff had made its initial offer right after the Cannes premiere - while many other streamers and studios passed, reportedly due to fear of retaliation from Trump. The hold-up releasing the movie has been exceptional, particularly given what Abbasi and others in the production felt was an urgency to get the film out not only before the election, but before it released in other countries and could lose much of its value due to piracy.
Despite infighting with Kinematics, The Apprentice has received critical acclaim, earning a standing ovation during its Cannes premiere.
“There is no nice metaphorical way to deal with fascism,” Abbasi said at the time. “It’s time to make movies relevant. It’s time to make movies political again.”
In the film’s most appalling scene, Trump is shown raping his first wife, Ivana, played by Maria Bakalova, during a fight.According to the 1993 book Lost Tycoon,Ivana made the rape accusation in a 1990 sworn divorce deposition. She later clarified her earlier statement, saying that she didn’t mean those words in “a literal or criminal sense”.She added, “As a woman, I felt violated.” Trump has denied the allegation. Ivana died in 2022.
Writer Gabriel Sherman, actress Maria Bakalova, director Ali Abbasi, and actors Sebastian Stan and Martin Donovan at the film's premiere at Cannes Film Festival in May. Photo / Getty Images
Stan and Strong have also been viewed as possible Oscar contenders for Best Leading Actor and Best Supporting Actor respectively, based on their performances.
The BBC called Stan’s portrayal of Trump an “excellent, nuanced performance”, noting he plays“the character as an insecure and impressionable lost soul who has no idea how to have a conversation, and who keeps stopping besides parked cars to check how his wispy hair looks in their windows”.
Stan went “beyond impersonation to capture the essence of the man”, the Hollywood Reporter said in its review.
Strong has been described as “interesting and effectively threatening as Cohn, with his strange physical stillness and lizardly stare” by the Guardian.
“He makes the character suitably icy, a fast talker with a withering stare and an almost inhuman intensity,” the Hollywood Reporter wrote of Strong. “The actor has fun with the hypocrisy of an unapologetic dirty trickster who claims unwavering fidelity to ‘truth, justice and the American way’.”
