The Apprentice: controversial Trump film released in the UK this week

• A look at the early years of Donald Trump’s real estate empire is the focus of the Ali Abassi movie, The Apprentice, opening in the UK this weekend.
• The film sees Sebastian Stan take on the role of the former POTUS, with support from Jeremy Strong and Maria Bakalova.
• But ahead of screenings in the United Kingdom, how has Donald Trump and his team reacted to the feature film?

It’s been a fortnight of Sebastian Stan, with not only the release of A Different Man on October 11 2024, but now the high-anticipated biopic of Donald Trump: The Apprentice.

Stand takes on the role of a young Donald Trump as he starts to eke out his career in the real estate world, gaining advice in the form of fierce lawyer Roy Cohn, played by Succession star Jeremy Strong. The film also delves into the relationship Trump had with his first wife, Ivanka, played by Maria Bakalova.

A film about Donald Trump’s early life and rise in New York’s real estate world was first announced in 2018, with journalist Gabriel Sherman, who had extensively covered Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, writing the screenplay. 

Sherman aimed to explore Trump’s “origin story,” particularly his mentor-mentee relationship with Roy Cohn. This angle emerged from Sherman’s conversations with people who had worked with Trump since the 1980s, shedding light on how Cohn influenced Trump’s later strategies during his political career.

Ali Abbasi, known for his celebrated 2022 work Holy Spider, was brought on as the director in 2023, after the script had been shared with prominent filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson and Clint Eastwood. Abbasi and the cast, including Stan, viewed the film as a “humanistic interrogation,” focused on understanding Trump’s world and motivations rather than a farcical or exaggerated portrayal.

So ahead of the presidential election in the United States next month, the film is set to elicit much discussion and discourse around the former POTUS; but what has he or his team said about the film after its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival?

“In the early 1970s, a young and ambitious Donald Trump began his rise in New York’s real estate world. He meets Roy Cohn, a controversial lawyer with a notorious reputation, and quickly falls under his influence. Cohn becomes Trump’s mentor, teaching him tactics that shape his future approach to business and public life. As Trump pursues high-profile real estate deals, including transforming the Commodore Hotel and building Trump Tower, his relationships with his family and his personal life become strained.” 

“Throughout the story, Trump’s interactions with Cohn reveal his growing ambitions, his contentious dealings with political figures, and the toll his choices take on those around him. The narrative explores the evolution of Trump’s public persona, his complex family dynamics, and his relentless drive for success.”

IMDB has listed the following performers are set to appear in The Apprentice alongside Stan, Strong and Bakalova:

IMDB has also stated that The Apprentice has a run time of 122 minutes, or 2 hours 2 minutes, so expect to spend around two-and-a-half hours at the cinema, including trailers before the film.

In their summary for the decision, the BBFC explained: “This tragicomic biographical drama contains a potentially distressing scene of sexual violence.”

As you would imagine, Donald Trump has not taken the matter of the film lightly, despite director Ali Abbasi even offering to screen the film for Trump privately before its general release. 

During the film’s screenings at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, Trump’s campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung issued a statement that the Trump team will file a lawsuit “to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers. This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalises lies that have been long debunked.”

However, the Republican Presidential candidate wasn’t quite as eloquent in his response ahead of the movie’s release in the United Kingdom; he took to Truth Social earlier this week to post the following comments: “A FAKE and CLASSLESS Movie written about me, called, The Apprentice (Do they even have the right to use that name without approval?), will hopefully ‘bomb.’” 

“It’s a cheap, defamatory, and politically disgusting hatchet job, put out right before the 2024 Presidential Election, to try and hurt the Greatest Political Movement in the History of our Country, ‘MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’”

The Apprentice is out in UK cinemas on October 18 2024, including Vue and Odeon. The film can be watched as part of Odeon’s MyLIMITLESS membership, offering unlimited access to film on show for a monthly fee. For more information, visit Odeon’s MyLIMITLESS page.