Ali Abassi’s film about a younger Donald Trump and his business daddy, Roy Cohn, The Apprentice, debuted at Cannes to generally good reviews. The film stars Jeremy Strong in his first post-Succession screen role, Sebastian Stan, and Maria Bakalova, plus Abassi is a generally admired filmmaker whose last film, Holy Spider, competed for the Palme d’Or (and actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi won Best Actress at Cannes in 2022).
I have my own issue with this film which is that no matter the tone or the presentation or the reception, or literally any context, it will only flatter Trump. He loves living rent free in our heads. But The Apprentice now has a very real problem—no one is buying it.
Given that it comes from an acclaimed filmmaker and features a buzzy cast and a hot-button subject, wouldn’t this be a no-brainer? Well, there are two roadblocks for any distributor who might be interested in this movie, and one is Donald Trump himself. You see, despite now being a convicted felon who can no longer vote, Trump can STILL run for president. That’s right, he can win an election he can’t vote in. He can win even if he’s in jail! America is a very silly place.
So, there is a real possibility some distributor—who would VERY likely have a parent company in the form of a conglomerate with merger & acquisition interests—could find themselves the possessors of a film about a president we all know to be both thin-skinned and vindictive, who has just regained control of the US Department of Justice, the SEC, and other federal regulatory bodies, who could make life all kinds of hell for said distributor and their parent company. This is NOT an unreasonable fear. I think anyone with half a brain is worried a second Trump presidency will involve a LOT of abuses of the US government to punish Trump’s perceived enemies. The Apprentice is now a political hot potato, where getting caught holding it at the wrong moment might make for real difficulty for the companies involved.
The second, admittedly less pressing issue, is that one of the film’s own producers, Dan Snyder (of football ownership fame), is threatening to sue the filmmakers because, and I know this is shocking to everyone, The Apprentice is a negative film about Trump. Even if you didn’t have to worry about a punitive potential president targeting you because of the film, you’d have to take on Snyder and his legal threats. Although without the first issue, I think many distributors would be willing to take on Dan Snyder for being an idiot.
There is also a third issue which I am not sure affects everyone who could buy and release The Apprentice but is affecting some. I spoke to someone from the distribution team of an indie shingle who screened the film at Cannes. Despite overall liking it, and seeing potential in it both commercially and critically, he said they have so far not made an offer because “the idea of releasing a Trump movie this year is too exhausting”. Basically, they’re already maxed out on Trump because of the election. In a non-election year, maybe they’d have more energy for it, but right now, it “fills [them] with dread” to think about making Trump part of their work lives, too.
Someone will buy The Apprentice. In the long run, I am not worried about that. But it might not get the support it really deserves, because there’s just so much extra stuff loaded onto this film, especially this year, with the election. And while I don’t know if it’s “censorship” for a studio to pass on The Apprentice, it is DEFINITELY cowardice. They’re basically admitting they’re afraid to challenge Trump, a man who was just convicted of 34 felonies, and has been found liable for sexual abuse by a jury of his peers. He shouldn’t be intimidating, because all he does is lose lately, but…the election is different. And there is, despite all good sense saying he should drop out of the race because he’s a goddamn felon, a good chance he’ll win. And we know what kind of president he is, and he will for sure use the federal government to punish whoever owns this movie.
Which means either a small company with no larger corporate interests buys The Apprentice, or it doesn’t sell until after the election, when in the case of a Biden win, it would be “safe” for anyone to release this film. Either way, we’re never going to be free from the specter of this man, whether he wins the presidency again or not, the damage is done.
