As he runs for president in the United States, Donald Trump is faced with the release of a biopic about his life, which he is far from approving.
The timing is carefully chosen, but it probably won’t help Donald Trump’s plans. A biopic about the American politician’s youth, presented at the Cannes Film Festival last May, is set to be released in theaters just weeks before the American presidential election, in which he will face Kamala Harris. The film, which made headlines at Cannes, has been accused of “purely malicious slander that should not see the light of day and does not even deserve a release in the trash row of a bankrupt video store” by Trump’s campaign teams. “It only deserves to burn in a dumpster.”
Directed by Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi, The Apprentice tells the story of the early years of Donald Trump’s career (played by Marvel actor Sebastian Stan), including his rise to fame through his relationship with American lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Stong, seen in Succession). Some scenes have already caused controversy and show the candidate to succeed Joe Biden in a very negative light.
Among the sequences that have provoked reactions are scenes in which Trump has plastic surgery and, worse, one in which he is seen pinning his first wife, Ivana Trump, to the ground before raping her. These sequences have provoked reactions from Donald Trump and his advisors, accusing The Apprentice to show fictional scenes.
“This is pure, filthy fiction that sensationalizes lies that have long been discredited,” Trump’s campaign spokesman said in May. The rape scene is believed to be a fictionalized retelling of an alleged attack described by his ex-wife during their 1990 divorce proceedings. While she had alleged rape, she has since recanted the claim.
In response, Donald Trump’s lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to the producers of The Apprentice to prevent its theatrical release in the United States and threatened to sue. This seems to have been a failure, since the New York Times announced last August that the film would indeed be released in the United States on October 11, less than a month before the American presidential election. In France, the film will be available from October 9.