Lawyers for former president Donald Trump sent a cease-and-desist letter to the filmmakers of the upcoming biopic, The Apprentice, in an attempt to block its expected sale and release in the U.S.
The cease-and-desist letter urges the film’s producers to restrain themselves from pursuing a distribution deal, Variety first reported Friday. The letter gives the team behind the film until Monday to comply with the demand, according to Deadline.
“The Movie presents itself as a factual biography of Mr. Trump, yet nothing could be further from the truth,” the three-page letter reportedly states. “It is a concoction of lies that repeatedly defames President Trump and constitutes direct foreign interference in America’s elections.”
The news comes after The Apprentice debuted at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival earlier this week, leaving the audience shocked by the end of the world-premiere screening.
In response to the cease-and-desist letter, producers of the film argued it maintains a “fair and balanced portrait of the former president,” despite the story’s fictionalization of some events. “We want everyone to see it and then decide,” they said.
The Apprentice, named after the reality television program, follows Trump in his early days as a real-estate mogul in New York City during the 1970s and 1980s. The movie, which opens with a disclaimer that certain events in the story are fictionalized, depicts Trump abusing amphetamines to lose weight, getting liposuction, undergoing plastic surgery, and raping his first wife, Ivana.
The rape scene takes inspiration from Ivana’s sexual-assault allegations during the couple’s divorce proceedings in 1990. In her deposition, she described an alleged attack and rape that took place the year before. However, she later recanted the claims.
Audience members audibly gasped at the aforementioned scenes and gave an eight-minute standing ovation as the credits rolled, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The Trump campaign vowed to pursue legal action after the film premiered on Monday due to its negative portrayal of the former president.
“This garbage is pure fiction which [sensationalizes] lies that have been long debunked,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a damning statement, taking aim at the “pretend” filmmakers. “This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, 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 movie also upset Dan Snyder, the billionaire former owner of the NFL’s Washington Commanders, who threatened his own cease-and-desist letter to halt a potential U.S. distribution deal. Snyder is one of the investors backing the film and a Trump supporter. He believed the film was going to be a “flattering portrayal of the 45th president,” Variety reported Monday. However, after viewing a rough cut of the film, he was livid.
Director Ali Abbasi shrugged off Trump’s legal threats. “Everybody talks about him suing a lot of people — they don’t talk about his success rate though,” he said at a Tuesday press conference in Cannes, France. Abbasi also offered to screen the movie for Trump, saying, “I don’t necessarily think that this is a movie he would dislike.”
“I don’t necessarily think he would like it,” he added. “I think he would be surprised, you know? And like I’ve said before, I would offer to go and meet him wherever he wants and talk about the context of the movie, have a screening talk and a chat afterwards, if that’s interesting to anyone at the Trump campaign.”
A month ago, Abbasi first offered to screen the movie for Trump and his family at the international Cannes Film Festival. “It’s a [dramatized] account of your formative relationship with Roy Cohen and more. Would be curious to hear your feedback obviously,” the Iranian filmmaker posted on X.
Despite the film’s critical nature, actor Sebastian Stan, who plays a younger Trump, said the former president is a “human being like everybody else.”
The Apprentice currently has no release date nor trailer.