apprentice No US distribution deal was announced and the film left the Cannes Film Festival empty-handed after former President Donald Trump threatened lawsuits and injunctions against the filmmakers.
Additionally, the film failed to win any awards at Saturday’s closing ceremony, despite some film critics predicting actor Sebastian Stan would win for his role as Trump.
A buyer could be found in the coming weeks, but U.S. distribution remains uncertain, with streaming companies and specialty theater labels having to consider the possibility of a messy, drawn-out legal battle. Box-office prospects also look bleak, with audiences largely shying away from films dealing with political and other big issues in recent years.
apprentice The film attracted a lot of media attention at Cannes this year, particularly for a scene in which Trump rapes his first wife, Ivana. The film also shows Trump undergoing plastic surgery and liposuction.
Ivana Trump herself has denied that her then-husband raped her.
After the film’s Cannes premiere, the Trump campaign threatened to sue the filmmakers.
“We will be filing lawsuits to address the demonstrably false claims made by the makers of this fake film,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Chang said in a statement. “This garbage is a complete fabrication that sensationalizes lies that were long ago debunked.”
He also called the film a “malicious libel.”
Trump’s lawyers apprentice Director Ali Abbasi and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman (pictured, far left) warned against pursuing a distribution deal.
“This is a fabrication of lies that repeatedly defame President Trump and constitutes direct foreign interference in an American election,” the letter read. “If you do not immediately cease distribution and sale of this defamatory farce, we will be forced to pursue all appropriate legal remedies.”
apprentice It was financed and produced independently, outside the Hollywood studio system, primarily through foreign companies and some domestic investors.
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