NEW YORK โ After struggling to drum up interest following its Cannes Film Festival premiere, the young Donald Trump drama โThe Apprentice,โ starring Sebastian Stan as the former president, has found a distributor that plans to release the film shortly before the election in November.
Briarcliff Entertainment will release โThe Apprenticeโ on Oct. 11 in U.S. and Canadian theaters.
Director Ali Abbasi, the Danish Iranian filmmaker, had prioritized getting โThe Apprenticeโ into theaters before voters head to the polls. After larger studios and film distributors opted not to bid on the film, Abbasi also complained in early June on X that "for some reason certain power people in your country donโt want you to see it!!!โ
Part of what dampened interest in โThe Apprentice" was the potential threat of legal action. After its Cannes premiere in May, Trumpโs reelection campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, called the movie โpure fictionโ and said the Trump team would file a lawsuit โto address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers.โ
FILE - Julianne Forde, from left, Ruth Treacy, Maria Bakalova, director Ali Abbasi, Sebastian Stan, and Amy Baer pose for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'The Apprentice' at the 77th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, on May 20, 2024.
โThe Apprenticeโ chronicles Trumpโs rise to power in New York real estate under the tutelage of defense attorney Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong). Late in the movie, Trump is depicted raping his wife, Ivana Trump (played by Maria Bakalova ). In Ivana Trumpโs 1990 divorce deposition, she stated that Trump raped her. Trump denied the allegation, and Ivana Trump later said she didnโt mean it literally, but rather that she had felt violated.
Abbasi has argued Trump might not dislike the movie.
โI would offer to go and meet him wherever he wants and talk about the context of the movie, have a screening and have a chat afterwards, if thatโs interesting to anyone at the Trump campaign,โ Abbasi said in May.
Briarcliff Entertainment has released films including the 2022 documentary โGabby Giffords Won't Back Downโ and the Liam Neeson thriller โMemory.โ The indie distributor is run by Tom Ortenberg, who at Lionsgate helped released Michael Moore's โFahrenheit 9/11โ and as chief executive of Open Road backed the best-picture winner โSpotlight.โ
From 'Home Alone' to 'Zoolander': Trump's long list of TV and movie cameos
President Donald Trump often has been referred to as a former reality TV star, but his pre-presidential on-screen appearances aren't limited to just "The Apprentice." Between television and movies, Trump has 26 acting credits on top of numerous other appearances as "himself," according to IMDB. Here are 12 Trump cameos you might not have noticed before:
Trump appeared as himself in this 1989 film. His short cameo earned him a Razzie in 1991 for worst supporting actor.
Trump delivered one line โ "Down the hall and to the left," โย in the 1992 sequel to "Home Alone."ย
Trump made a very brief appearance as Waldo's dad in "The Liltte Rascals." His entire role consisted of him answering the phone and telling hi…
Once again, Trump plays himself in this 1996 made-for-TV movie.
This is one of two episodes Trump appeared in during the 1997 season of "NightMan." In this episode, "Face to Face," an escaped convict who ca…
Trump appears as himself in this 1998 episode of "Spin City."ย Mike Flaherty (Michael J. Fox) brings Trump in to give the mayor (Barry Bostwick…
Trump's acting credits on IMDB
