The rise of Donald Trump as a real estate mogul and one of the country's most famous businessmen is chronicled in an upcoming full-length biopic named for his former reality TV show—"The Apprentice"—and a first trailer released Tuesday shows his early mentor Roy Cohn urging him to adopt a win-at-all-costs mentality.
This image released by Briarcliff Entertainment shows Jeremy Strong, left, and Sebastian Stan in a ... [+]
The film, which is set to hit theaters in October after its controversial premiere at the Cannes Film Festival left it struggling to find a U.S. distributor, promises a “dive into the underbelly of the American empire.”
The trailer shows an ambitious young Trump—played by Sebastian Stan—seeking out the advice of Cohn, a famous lawyer and political fixer played by Jeremy Strong, and getting several pieces of advice, including "Admit nothing, deny everything” and “No matter what happens, you claim victory and never admit defeat.”
Clips in the trailer show Trump teasing his infamous hair-do, marrying his first wife Ivana Trump, closing real estate deals and being told by one woman, "Your face looks like an orange."
The trailer comes one week after a one-minute first-look of the movie was released showing a young Trump discussing his purchase of the Commodore Hotel with a reporter and promising it will be the "finest building in the city, maybe the country, in the world,” at the urging of Cohn.
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“You have to be willing to do anything, to anyone, to win” Cohn tells Trump in the trailer for “The Apprentice.”
“The Apprentice” will open in theaters on Oct. 11 and last week launched a Kickstarter fundraising campaign to “keep the film in as many theaters for as long as possible." The release date is 24 days before the presidential election on Nov. 4.
“The Apprentice” was first announced in May 2018 and has been hit with several setbacks along the way. The movie is written by Gabriel Sherman, author of the Roger Ailes biography "The Loudest Voice in the Room," and stars Stan, Strong, Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump and Martin Donovan as Donald's father Fred Trump. The film premiered at this year's Cannes Film Festival and received an eight-minute standing ovation from the crowd, while also making headlines for its jaw-dropping scenes that depict a young Trump getting liposuction surgery and another depicting him sexually assaulting his ex-wife, Ivana, who claimed in a 1989 divorce deposition that she was raped by Trump. He denied the allegation and Ivana later backtracked. After the festival release, it took months for the movie to secure a U.S. distributor and release date, with the New York Times reporting several major distributors, including Sony, Netflix and Prime Video, worried the controversial film will alienate people on both sides of the political aisle. The film was also hit with threats of a lawsuit from the Trump campaign in May, which blasted it as containing "blatantly false assertions." Campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Variety the movie is "pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked." No lawsuit was filed.
Trump has an estimated $4 billion net worth as of Tuesday thanks to his stakes in Truth Social's parent company, the Trump Media and Technology Group, his real estate investments and other assets.