Another update on Ali Abassi’s “The Apprentice.”
It’s being reported that James Shani, who is one of the film’s producers, is leading a group to buy out Dan Snyder’s Kinematics stake in “The Apprentice”. They want to get rid of Snyder, who is blocking U.S. distribution, to release the film right before the 2024 election in November.
According to insiders, the producers are offering Snyder $7M to settle on an agreement. Upon settlement, the producers would then be able to speed up the pending deal agreement they have with Tom Ortenberg’s Briarcliff Entertainment for “wide release before the election.”
The film features a much-discussed scene where Trump rapes his former wife Ivana. Snyder wasn’t too thrilled about the scene. In May, Variety reported that Snyder, who is a friend of Trump’s, first saw a cut of the film in February and was absolutely furious. This didn’t stop the film from premiering at Cannes where it was met with, mostly, positive reviews.
According to her 1993 autobiography “Lost Tycoon,” Ivana made the rape accusation in a divorce court statement, but later clarified her earlier words, noting that she did not mean them in “a literal or criminal sense,” adding she “just felt violated” at the time.
Almost every Hollywood studio declined to distribute “The Apprentice,” but when producers finally thought they had secured an interested U.S. partner, Briarcliff, Snyder vetoed the deal. Whether Snyder agrees to this deal remains to be seen, but it is of the utmost importance for these ‘Apprentice’ producers to have the film shown right before the 2024 election …