Ali Abbasi’s “The Apprentice” has been acquired by Tom Ortenberg’s Briarcliff Entertainment for a pre-election U.S. release on October 11. The film will also be getting an awards push. It’s also having a surprise screening at Telluride this weekend.
The Donald Trump “origin story” premiered at Cannes in May, much to the dismay of producer Dan Snyder, a pro-Trump donor whose Kinematics tried to block the release, reportedly displeased with the film’s depiction of Trump.
The film features a much-discussed scene where Trump rapes his former wife Ivana. 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. Snyder claimed the scene was kept in the film without his consent.
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.
After months of contention, Snyder’s interest in the film has now been bought out, allowing the Briarcliff deal to be finalized. This means the film will now be able to start screening at some fall film festivals, and a “full-on awards campaign” is being prepped for it as well.
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. It was crucial, and time sensitive, for the other producers to get rid of Snyder, as they wanted the film to be shown right before the 2024 election.
At Cannes, I asked “Is there actually an audience for “The Apprentice”? Sure, there will be some curiosity seekers, but being inundated with 24/7 wall-to-wall news coverage of Trump, every day and all day, these last 8 years has numbed people to no ends. The last thing audiences want is to pay $20 to watch more of that.
“The Apprentice” is actually a good film . Itt tackles the gradual transformation of Trump in the ‘70s and ‘80s and is done in a way that avoids SNL-style parody. It’s actually quite restrained for most of its runtime and the story being told here is fascinating. Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan are also great in the two lead performances.