'The Apprentice' Trump biopic shut out at Cannes
“The Apprentice,” a new biopic about former President Trump’s rise in the real estate industry, did not clinch any awards at the Cannes Film Festival over the weekend.
The biopic is directed by Iranian Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi and stars actor Sebastian Stan playing the then-New York real estate developer Trump and Jeremy Strong as Trump’s real-life former attorney and mentor Roy Cohen. The movie reportedly received an eight-minute standing ovation after it premiered at the festival.
The film failed to take home any awards, with the top prize going to “Anora,” a romantic drama set in New York. Filmmaker Sean Baker became the first American to win the top award, the Palme d’Or, since 2011 with that film.
Some reports about “The Apprentice” said it depicted Trump’s relationships with Cohn and his first wife, Ivana, in a negative light. An attorney for the former president sent a cease-and-desist letter to the filmmakers behind the movie on Friday, alleging that the film is “a concoction of lies that repeatedly defames” Trump.
“If you do not immediately cease and desist all distribution and marketing of this libelous farce, we will be forced to pursue all appropriate legal remedies,” the letter stated.
The move comes after Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung warned last week that the campaign would sue those behind “The Apprentice” film, alleging that it has “blatantly false assertions.”
“This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, should not see the light of day, and doesn’t even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie store, it belongs in a dumpster fire,” Cheung said in a statement last week.
The film’s producers told Variety it was “a fair and balanced portrait of the former president.”
“We want everyone to see it and then decide,” they said.
Variety reported ahead of last week’s premiere that Dan Synder, an investor in the film through film company Kinematics and an ally of Trump, was not happy with the outcome of the movie, citing anonymous sources.
He was reportedly furious and had Kinematics’ lawyers come in to attempt to stop the release of the movie, according to Variety.