Lawyers for former President Trump have sent a cease-and-desist letter to the producers of “The Apprentice,” a new biopic that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this week, according to multiple reports on Friday.
According to VarietyAccording to The News, which first reported the letter, the Trump campaign is seeking to block the release of “The Apprentice” and warning producers not to seek a distributor for the film, which stars “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” star Sebastian Stan as a young Trump and “Succession” alum Jeremy Strong as famed lawyer Roy Cohn.
“While the film is portrayed as a factual biography of Mr. Trump, nothing is further from the truth,” the letter, addressed to director Ali Abbasi and screenwriter Gabriel Sherman, said. According to Deadline.
“This is a fabrication of lies that repeatedly defame President Trump and constitutes direct foreign interference in an American election,” the letter reportedly said. “If you do not immediately cease distribution and sale of this defamatory farce, we will be forced to pursue all appropriate legal remedies.”
In a statement to Variety, the film’s producers called it a “fair and balanced portrayal of the former president.”
“Let people see it and decide,” they said.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Chang had previously threatened legal action over the film, calling it a “total and egregious slander” and saying it “should never see the light of day, nor does it deserve to be in the bargain DVD section of a soon-to-be-closing discount cinema store. It belongs in the bin.”
“We intend to file a lawsuit to address the demonstrably false claims made by these fake filmmakers,” Chang said in a statement to The Hill. “This garbage is a complete fabrication that sensationalizes lies that were long ago debunked. Like the illegal Biden trial, this is election interference by Hollywood elites who know that because nothing they’ve done has worked, President Trump will retake the White House and defeat the candidate they handpicked.”
The Hill has reached out to Trump’s lawyers, the Trump campaign and the filmmakers of “The Apprentice” for further comment.
The film received an eight-minute standing ovation after its premiere in Cannes.
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