“The Apprentice”: Trump will try to prevent the commercial release of the film based on his beginnings in the real estate industry
The new movie Ali Abbasi (“Border”, “Holy Spider”) had its international premiere at the 77th edition of the prestigious Cannes Film Festivalcelebrated from Tuesday, May 14 to Saturday, May 25. “The Apprentice”, the title of the work in question, was part of the Official Selection of the festival, and competed for the most important award, the Palme d’Or.. After the screening, journalists from the specialized press claim that the audience celebrated the production with a standing ovation that lasted several minutes.
But everything seems to indicate that this is not a particularly flattering look at the life of the American tycoon; As it became known, the film, set between the 70s and 80s, revolves around the rise to power of Trump (played by an unrecognizable Sebastian Stan) through the “deal with the devil” with the infamous lawyer Roy Cohn, which It led him to enter the underbelly of the North American empire.
Now, with the commercial release of “The Apprentice” just around the corner, The real Donald Trump has spoken out against the film, and confirmed the initiation of legal action to prevent its arrival on North American screens.. In mid-May 2024, Trump’s legal team sent a cease-and-desist letter to the filmmakers, warning of possible “strong legal measures” if they try to distribute it in North America. For their part, the producers responded by claiming that “The film is a fair and balanced portrait of the former president. We want everyone to see it and then decide“, which is understood as a refusal to his order.
Read more: Sebastian Stan dresses up as Donald Trump in the first official image of The Apprentice
The threats to sue the production began when the communications director of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, Steven Cheung, criticized the film’s staging of a rape scene between Ivana and Donald Trump, which would be based on the minutes of the divorce. In a statement related to her divorce, Ivana accused Donald of rape and of pulling out her hair by the handful when a plastic surgery she underwent failed.
The Trump campaign called the film “trash” and “pure fiction” in a lengthy public statement, and the director later offered to hold a private screening for Trump. Along these lines, Abbasi highlighted the importance and need to “produce realistic films about the threat of fascism“.
For his part, billionaire Dan Snyder, former owner of the Washington Commanders NFL team, donated money to the production of The Apprentice under the impression that the film would be a positive portrayal of Trump. Snyder is a close friend of the former president and donated $1.1 million to his inaugural committee and the Trump Victory Committee in 2016, and $100,000 to his 2020 presidential campaign. After seeing a cut of the film in February 2024, it was learned that Snyder was furious, starting a legal battle with the lawyers of the production company Kinematics to try to prevent the commercial release.
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“The Apprentice”: Sebastian Stan dresses up as Donald Trump for a fiction about the tycoon
The actor known in the industry for playing the Winter Soldier in it Marvel Cinematic Universehe once again ventured into biographical drama with “The Apprentice,” a film about the rise of Donald Trump’s real estate empire in the 1970s and 1980s. Stan plays the titular character, the businessman, media person and former president of the United States in his youth.
Sebastian Stanwho already played real-life characters in “I, Tonya” (2017) and “Pam & Tommy” (2022), stars in a true “tour de force“, acting term used to refer to dramatic roles that demand great effort, both physical and mental. As confirmed by those who were able to see it in Cannes, the film shows Trump as a womanizer and an unethical businessman who deceives contractors and makes deals with the mafia to complete the construction of his buildings.
In addition, it shows Trump using amphetamines to lose weight and undergoing liposuction and plastic surgery, in addition to including the aforementioned infamous scene where the mogul rapes his first wife, Ivana (played by Maria Bakalova).
“I wanted to distance myself a little from today’s Trump, because if you look at his evolution he is a different person.“said Abbasi at a press conference within the framework of the Cannes Film Festival. Furthermore, he was convinced that the film does not have to displease the president. “I think it will surprise you“, he justified.
