Donald Trump’s presidential election campaign has threatened legal action against the makers of The Apprentice, Ali Abassi’s biographical drama that premiered in the Cannes competition on Sunday (May 19).
In a statement about the film released to the Hollywood trades on Monday, campaign chief spokesperson Steven Cheung said: “We will be filing 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.”
“This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation,” the statement added, “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 stars Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as his fixer Roy Cohn and follows the rise of Trump as a real estate mogul in the 1970s and 1980s.
Rocket Science has been selling international territories on the film, but US representatives CAA Media Finance and WME Independent had not announced a US deal before the Cannes screening. Screen has reported caution among US buyers over the box office potential of hot-topic films such as The Apprentice.
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