Tailored Films/Briarcliff Entertainment
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Despite the threat of legal action from Donald Trump’s campaign, The Apprentice, the upcoming Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong-starring film about Trump’s life as a New York City real estate developer in the 1970s and 1980s, has landed a release date in the United States.
Acquired by Tom Ortenberg’s Briarcliff Entertainment, The Apprentice — which features Sebastian Stan as the 34-time convicted Republican presidential nominee — will be released in the United States prior to the November 5 election, hitting movie theaters on October 11.
Alongside Stan as Trump, The Apprentice also features Emmy winner and former Succession star Jeremy Strong as Trump’s infamous former fixer and lawyer Roy Cohn. Additional cast members include Borat 2 breakout Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump, Martin Donovan, Charlie Carrick, Mark Rendall, and more.
The film reportedly includes a scene in which Trump sexually assaults his first wife Ivana, which is what she claimed he did in a 1989 divorce deposition.
The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year and earned largely rave reviews, with Deadline reporting that the film shows Trump as “a person, somewhat driven but awkward, a man striving for the approval of a tough-love father, unsure but determined to succeed and even oddly charming at times.”
“What Ali Abassi’s film reveals most of all is the extent to which the toxicity that’s now an inescapable part of our contemporary reality was shaped by the unholy alliance between two men half a century ago,” said The Hollywood Reporter in their review of the film out of Cannes.
Back in May, the Trump campaign threatened legal action against the production, calling the film a work of “pure fiction.” Despite these threats, Briarcliff acquired and looks set to release The Apprentice — which is already generating award-season buzz — anyway.
“We will be filing a lawsuit to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers,” the Trump campaign said in a statement.
“This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked… this is election interference by Hollywood elites, who know that President Trump will retake the White House and beat their candidate of choice because nothing they have done has worked.”
At this time, an official trailer for The Apprentice has not been released. Given the film has now been acquired and will hit theaters in just over a month, the first trailer will likely be released in the coming weeks.