Sebastian Stan’s ‘The Apprentice’ Film May Be Blocked By Cease and Desist
Sebastian Stan’s The Apprentice film may be blocked from release. Stan’s newest role is playing Donald Trump in an upcoming film called The Apprentice. But the former president and his lawyers are trying to block the film from commercial release. Per Variety, attorneys for the former President have sent a cease and desist letter to the filmmakers behind The Apprentice in an effort to block its US sale and release. The letter warns the team behind the film not to pursue a distribution deal, according to two people who have read the letter and told the publication.
What Is The Apprentice About?
The biopic, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this week and received an eight-minute standing ovation, looks at Trump’s early years as a real estate developer and his relationship with Roy Cohn, a lawyer whom he met in 1973 and who advised the young businessman on how to deal with the federal government and fight enforcement of laws against racial discrimination in housing.
The drama, which was independently produced, stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Cohn. It presents a damning portrait of Trump as an ethically compromised philanderer who stiffs contractors and cuts deals with the mob to get his buildings completed. It includes other controversial details, including a scene where Trump rapes his first wife, Ivana, and depicts him abusing amphetamines to lose weight, as well as undergoing liposuction and plastic surgery.
Cease And Desist Sent By Trump
“The film is a fair and balanced portrait of the former president,” the producers of the film said in a statement regarding the cease and desist. “We want everyone to see it and then decide.” Representatives for Trump responded, threatening legal action if they do not comply. Steven Cheung, Trump campaign communications director, said in a statement: “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.”
The Apprentice was directed by Ali Abbasi and features a script by Gabriel Sherman, a journalist who covered the Trump administration. At a press conference in Cannes for the film, director Abbasi responded to Trump’s legal threats. “Everybody talks about him suing a lot of people — they don’t talk about his success rate though, you know?” he said. He also offered to screen the movie for Trump, saying, “I don’t necessarily think that this is a movie he would dislike.”
Meanwhile, Stan praised “all the people that had enough balls” to make the film, which is supposed to release around this year’s election.
