“The Apprentice,” a new biopic about former President Trump’s rise in the real estate industry, did not win any honors at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend.
The biography, directed by Iranian Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi, stars Sebastian Stan as the then-New York real estate developer Trump and Jeremy Strong as Trump’s real-life former attorney and mentor Roy Cohn. The film apparently garnered an eight-minute standing ovation when it opened at the festival.
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The film did not win any accolades, with the top prize going to “Anora,” a love drama set in New York. Sean Baker, a filmmaker, became the first American to receive the top honor, the Palme d’Or, since 2011.
According to some stories, “The Apprentice” casts a poor light on Trump’s relationships with Cohn and his first wife, Ivana. On Friday, an attorney representing the former president submitted a cease-and-desist letter to the film’s creators, claiming that the film is “a concoction of lies that repeatedly defames” Trump.
“If you do not immediately cease and desist from all distribution and marketing of this libelous farce, we will be forced to pursue all appropriate legal remedies,” the letter read.
The move comes after Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung threatened last week that the campaign would sue those behind the “The Apprentice” video, claiming that it contains “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 issued last week.
The film’s makers told Variety that it was “a fair and balanced portrait of the former President.”
“We want everyone to see it and then decide,” they replied.
Variety claimed ahead of last week’s premiere that Dan Synder, an investor in the film through Kinematics and a Trump loyalist, was dissatisfied with the film’s outcome, citing anonymous sources.
According to Variety, he was enraged and had Kinematics’ lawyers intervene to try to stop the film’s release.
