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Looks Like Trumpā€™s Team Couldnā€™t Get the Trump Movie Dumped

Photo: DCM Film Distribution

Talk about campaign season. The Trump movie will make it to U.S. theaters before the presidential election ā€¦ and in time to push for awards consideration. For a while, Ali Abbasiā€™s The Apprentice seemed like a potential tough sell, perhaps because Donald Trumpā€™s team threatened to file a lawsuit over the film. The movie reportedly includes a scene in which Trump rapes his wife Ivana, which he has denied doing (Ivana made the claim in a 1990Ā divorce deposition but later said she had felt ā€œviolatedā€ and hadnā€™t meant the word rape literally). Despite legal concerns, possible billionaire beef, and a scathing review from Trumpā€™s team, The Apprentice has managed to release a trailer to prove it.

What happens in The Apprentice trailer?

Thatā€™s Jeremy Strong and the sound of violins, but this isnā€™t Succession.Ā As Roy Cohn, heā€™s the daddy now. Sebastian Stanā€™s Donald J. Trump puckers up to do whatever it takes to get into Cohnā€™s circle of illicit affairs and business deals. ā€œMaybe Iā€™ll run for president, I donā€™t know,ā€ he tells a ā€™90s interviewer, just after a scene in which he stuffs his face with craft-service cheese balls. Yeah, your Trump-loving uncle is going to hate this one.

When is The Apprentice releasing?

Per The Hollywood Reporter, Briarcliff Entertainment will theatrically release The Apprentice in the U.S. on October 11, after the movie plays at some fall film festivals. A ā€œfull-onā€ awards campaign is said to be planned to promote the biopic, which stars Stan as a young Trump opposite Strongā€™s Cohn.

Was there Dan Snyder drama?

Reportedly, yup. Billionaire Dan Snyder, who helped fund ļ»æThe Apprentice as a backer of the production company Kinematics, allegedly wanted to block the filmā€™s theatrical release after its Cannes Film Festival premiere made him realize the former president wasnā€™t portrayed as positively as he expected.

A source told Vulture that The Apprenticeā€™s executive producer James Shani, whose company, Rich Spirit, was also among the filmā€™s backers, acquired the film from Kinematics and partnered with Briarcliff. Kinematics later confirmed in a September 3 statement to Deadline that it had exited the project due to ā€œcreative differencesā€ and that Rich Spirit had bought its interest in a deal with undisclosed financial terms.

Can I really purchase Sebastian Stanā€™s toupee on Kickstarter?

For a limited time, yes! The producers have launched a Kickstarter in hopes of crowdfunding enough money to ā€œhelp get the movie out to as many theatres as possible for as long as possible.ā€ Based on how much you donate, potential rewards include getting your name in the credits, a signed poster ā€¦ and, yes, on-set hair props actually worn by Stan. As of publication time, a thousand-plus backers have already pledged more than $82,000 total. Three hairpieces ā€” described as ā€œYoung Donnie,ā€ ā€œPower Donald,ā€ and ā€œLast Stage Donā€ ā€”Ā are still listed as available for $3,500 apiece.

What has Trumpā€™s team said?

Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung claimed in an August 30 statement to the Associated Press that The Apprenticeā€™s upcoming October release is akin to ā€œelection interference by Hollywood elites right before November.ā€ Cheung described the film as ā€œpure malicious defamationā€ that ā€œdoesnā€™t even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie storeā€ and instead ā€œbelongs in a dumpster fire.ā€ Granted, sometimes thatā€™s exactly the kind of movie the internet latches onto, but weā€™ll see.

Looks Like Trumpā€™s Team Couldnā€™t Get the Trump Movie Dumped