A new biopic about former President Donald Trump has become the subject of a legal battle involving billionaire businessman, Dan Snyder. Titled The Apprentice, the film was directed by Ali Abbasi — who elsewhere helmed two episodes of The Last Of Us — and recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.
The Apprentice follows Trump’s early years as a businessman in the 1970s and 1980s, and stars Sebastian Stan as Trump opposite Succession’s Jeremy Strong as his lawyer and mentor, Roy Cohn.
While any movie with Trump as its subject matter is destined for a less than flattering portrayal (you know, given his history), The Apprentice has reportedly angered Snyder, who helped fund the film through his production company Kinematics.
Snyder is a longtime supporter of Trump, serving as a major GOP donor and contributing over $1 million to Trump’s inauguration in 2017. Snyder — notorious for his mismanagement of the football team the Washington Commanders — also donated $100,000 to Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign.
Variety reports that the billionaire was under the impression that The Apprentice would be a favorable portrayal of the former President, and was reportedly “furious” when shown the actual contents of the film at a screening in February.
Audiences at Cannes have now seen The Apprentice and have reported that one scene depicts what’s been described as a rape scene involving Stan’s Trump and his former wife Ivana, played by Bodies Bodies Bodies star Maria Bakalova. For context, Ivana accused Trump of sexually violating her in a 1989 divorce filing, but later recanted the accusation in 2015.
Naturally, given his long support of Trump and his company’s involvement in the unflattering biopic, Snyder reportedly had issues with “multiple aspects of the film.” The billionaire is said to have launched a legal battle with the filmmakers to prevent The Apprentice’s release.
Responding to the reports, however, Kinematics president Emanuel Nuñez said that all creative decisions involving The Apprentice were “solely made by Kinematics.” While it might’ve found one critic in Snyder, The Apprentice was a massive hit at Cannes, and reportedly received an eight-minute standing ovation led by audience attendees Cate Blanchette and Cynthia Erivo.
Alongside the violent scene between Trump and Ivana, it’s been reported that The Apprentice depicts in gory detail a liposuction surgery Trump had in his younger days, as well as his extramarital encounters in Atlantic City. Trump himself has yet to comment on the film, though we predict he’ll be less than happy with the depiction, which certainly sounds nothing like his brief cameo in Home Alone.