A film focused on former President Trump, “The Apprentice,” is going to open in the U.S. prior to Election Day.
According to the Associated Press, the film is getting an Oct. 11 U.S. and Canadian release via Briarcliff Entertainment.
“Soooo excited to show the movie to its home audience!!! America here we come,” the film’s director, Ali Abbasi, said in a post on the social platform X Friday.
Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, called the movie "pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked" in a statement to The Hill on Friday.
“This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, should never 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.
Back in May, a lawyer for Trump sent a cease-and-desist letter to the filmmakers behind “The Apprentice,” which stars “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” star Sebastian Stan as a younger Trump and “Succession” actor Jeremy Strong as infamous defense attorney Roy Cohn. Trump's team sought to block the film's release and threatened a lawsuit.
“The Movie presents itself as a factual biography of Mr. Trump, yet nothing could be further from the truth,” the letter from Trump attorney David Warrington to Abbasi and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman read.
“It is a concoction of lies that repeatedly defames President Trump and constitutes direct foreign interference in America’s elections,” the letter said. “If you do not immediately cease and desist all distribution and marketing of this libelous farce, we will be forced to pursue all appropriate legal remedies.”
In a previous statement to Variety, the film’s producers called it “a fair and balanced portrait of the former president.”
“We want everyone to see it and then decide,” they said.
The Hill has reached out to Briarcliff Entertainment.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
