Trump film hamstrung after funder says: ‘You’re fired’
Producers of ‘The Apprentice’ are battling to find the wide US pre-election release they hoped for
Here’s a task from a hypothetical episode of former US president Donald Trump’s reality TV hit The Apprentice. A Danish-Iranian director and a political journalist have collaborated on a film about the early days of the 45th US president, which focuses on his rise to power as a New York property mogul in the 1980s, under the mentorship of notorious right-wing lawyer Roy Cohn. The film, which debuted at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival to strong reviews, has struggled to get a release, mostly because it was part funded by a company that has a billionaire pro-Trump CEO who has been so unhappy with the portrayal of his idol on screen that he’s done everything in his power to stop it from seeing the light of day. The subject of the film, who is notoriously litigious, also threatened legal action against the film, claiming in a cease and desist letter sent shortly after the film’s premier in May that “this ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, should not see the light of day, and doesn’t eve...
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