By Jake Coyle, Film Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --After struggling to drum up interest following its Cannes Film Festival premiere, “The Apprentice,” starring Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump, has found a distributor that plans to release the film shortly before the election in November.
Briarcliff Entertainment will release “The Apprentice” on Oct. 11 in U.S. and Canadian theaters.
Director Ali Abbasi, the Danish Iranian filmmaker, had prioritized getting “The Apprentice” into theaters before voters head to the polls. After larger studios and film distributors opted not to bid on the film, Abbasi also complained in early June on X that “for some reason certain power people in your country don’t want you to see it!!!”
Part of what dampened interest in “The Apprentice” was the potential threat of legal action. After its Cannes premiere in May, Trump’s reelection campaign spokesperson, Steven Cheung, called the movie “pure fiction” and said the Trump team would file a lawsuit “to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers.”
“The Apprentice” chronicles Trump’s rise to power in New York real estate under the tutelage of defense attorney Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong). Late in the movie, Trump is depicted raping his wife, Ivana Trump (played by Maria Bakalova ). In Ivana Trump’s 1990 divorce deposition, she stated that Trump raped her. Trump denied the allegation and Ivana Trump later said she didn’t mean it literally, but rather that she had felt violated.
Abbasi has argued Trump might not dislike the movie.
“I would offer to go and meet him wherever he wants and talk about the context of the movie, have a screening and have a chat afterwards, if that’s interesting to anyone at the Trump campaign,” Abbasi said in May.
A message sent to Trump’s campaign for comment was not immediately returned.
Briarcliff Entertainment has released films including the 2022 documentary “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” and the Liam Neeson thriller “Memory.” The indie distributor is run by Tom Ortenberg, who at Lionsgate helped released Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” and as chief executive of Open Road backed the best-picture winner “Spotlight.”
Greenwich Entertainment acquires select North American distribution rights to James Carville documentary
Greenwich Entertainment has acquired select North American distribution rights to Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid directed by Matt Tyrnauer (Where’s My Roy Cohn?, Valentino: The Last Emperor). The documentary premiered to rave reviews at the Telluride Film Festival and CNN Films will broadcast Carville on Saturday, October 5 on CNN. Greenwich, which previously released Tyrnauer’s Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, will release Carville in theaters across the country starting in New York on October 11, and in Los Angeles on October 25, among other cities.
Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid, about famed Democratic political consultant James Carville, chronicles an 18-month period in which Carville spearheaded efforts to persuade President Joe Biden not to run for re-election in 2024. Carville, famously known for coining the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid” during Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign, is portrayed not only in his political element, but also in his personal life--spending time at his New Orleans home with his wife, Republican strategist Mary Matalin, and traveling across the nation. The documentary features interviews with prominent political figures such as Bill Clinton, Al Hunt, Donna Brazile, George Stephanopoulos, Paul Begala, Mandy Grunwald, Rev. Al Sharpton, Mitch Landrieu, and Sidney Blumenthal.
“I’m thrilled to be working with Greenwich again and bringing my film to theaters in the weeks leading up to the election. James Carville played a big role in influencing the unprecedented campaign of 2024, and the film captures his bold insurgency to persuade President Biden to step aside,” said Tyrnauer.
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