The Apprentice by Ali Abbasi attacks Donald Trump and the American Empire, which seems to frighten Hollywood (a lot).
The Cannes Film Festival is over and obviously, we have taken stock and awarded our prize list for this Cannes 2024. Except that since then, a small anomaly is occurring on one of the official competition projects : The Apprenticeby the brilliant Iranian director Ali Abbasi.
After being spotted in Cannes (also) with his films Border And The Nights of Mashhadthe filmmaker returned to the Croisette with The Apprentice. Telling the story of Donald Trump’s rise as an entrepreneur in the 1970s, starring Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong, the film is clearly in tune with the times. And yet, to this day, The Apprentice still does not have a distributor in the United States. For what ? Is Hollywood afraid of the consequences? Is Trump’s pressure too strong? Explanatory elements.
The Apprentice: Buy me if you can
First of all, we need to put things in context. Of course, the film attacks Donald Trump of course, but as Ali Abbasi made it clear: the film goes well beyond a simple biopic of the former President of the United States. In the columns of Variety before the broadcast of his project in Cannes, the filmmaker described The Apprentice Thus :
“We wanted to make a punk rock version of a historical film, which meant we had to maintain a certain energy, a certain spirit, without being too anxious about the details and what is good and what is not. […] America is a country… but it is also an empire. I was more concerned about the empire part. »
Concretely, the film therefore mainly highlights the excesses of the country via Trump’s journey (and not simply the excesses of Trump). Despite this approach, since its broadcast in Cannes, the film suffered a form of rejection from distributors.
The film does have a distributor all over the world… notably in France with Metropolitan, but it is surprisingly stuck in the United States, the country where the film is supposed to have the biggest impact. According to The Puck, all major streaming services have passed their turn on broadcasting the film. Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and Apple, none of them apparently want to take on the film, even though it is directed by a filmmaker with a growing reputation and tackles an intriguing subject that will inevitably get people talking.
As for the Hollywood majors, there is the same story, whether it is the big studios or their so-called more “specialized” divisions. According to Varietygoodbye then, Searchlight (Fox) Sony Pictures Classics, Focus (Universal), A24, HBO (Warner) and Lionsgate. Even Neon, although it distributes Border of Ali Abbasi, would not have made an offer at the time this article was published.
Don’t be fooled
But then, why would distributors not want a film about a candidate in the middle of an election year? Without too many surprises, there are a multitude of reasons for the rejection of The Apprentice by distributors and they announce nothing of value.
Firstly, the film is in a form of impasse. Dan Snyder, an investor in The Apprentice, is absolutely furious with the film. Indeed, according to sources close to Variety, when investing in the project via the company Kinematics, the billionaire, great supporter and admirer of Donald Trump, thought that The Apprentice was going to paint a flattering picture. Faced with the extract that he was able to discover, he would have been disillusioned. Since then, he would like to rework the project to remove certain scenes from the film, including a specific one (mentioned further down in this article). And since Snyder has, a priori, a say in the sales negotiations for the film, it’s a bit of a hassle.
Support from Trump in the paws to make a film about the gentleman, that’s quite a constraint. But that’s not the most important thing. Because yes, Donald Trump reportedly considering legal action against Abbasi’s film. According to Variety, the producers of the film received a formal notice from the campaign team of the candidate for the 2024 presidential election. Here is what was said about the film by Stephen Cheung, Trump spokesperson, in a press release :
“This bullshit is pure fiction that sensationalizes lies that have long been debunked […] This “ film” is pure malicious slander, should not see the light of day, and does not even deserve a place in the Direct-to-DVD section of the bargain section at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie store. It belongs in a burning trash can. »
Life is a long (not) quiet Trump
This formal notice would have been caused in particular by a very particular scene at the heart of the film: the one where Former US President Rapes Ivana Trump, His First Wife. A brutal sequence (among other brief sexual sequences punctuating the film where Trump is notably described as impotent) which would therefore not be to the taste of the main person concerned (or his lawyers). Overall, Trump’s representatives assert that the film does not highlight Trump’s career and lies about his person, his empire, his methods…
To hope to resolve the situation, Ali Abbasi offered to show the film to Trump before releasing it. Objective ? Let Trump see for himself that the film is far from constantly devaluing him (it is sometimes even the opposite according to certain critics, which annoyed them during the Cannes presentation):
“Everyone talks about his cases against a lot of people — but they don’t talk about his success rate, you know? […] I don’t necessarily think it’s a film that he [Trump] wouldn’t like it. I don’t necessarily think he would like that. I think he would be surprised, you know? And as I said before, I would suggest that we go meet him wherever he wants and talk about the context of the film, attend a screening and discuss it afterwards, if anyone in the community is interested. Trump campaign team. »
In any case, this possible prosecution a priori scares Hollywood. The studios are undoubtedly worried about supporting the film and suffering the consequences if Trump is re-elected president (the election takes place in four months). Privately, the team behind Abbasi’s film believes that their difficulty in concluding a distribution agreement approaches censorship.
Indeed, the possible return of Donald Trump and possible revenge on his part would frighten a large part of the Hollywood industry. A distributor who organized a screening of the film declared to Variety :
“Only a few companies can distribute this film. Any business that displays a sign “ for sale” or who intends to merge [ou] to buy will be reluctant to do so, because there is a chance that regulators [de Trump] be punitive if elected. »
death trumpet
So many reasons which undoubtedly explain a little why the film is at the heart of such a storm. That said, beyond all political considerations, it is also important to note that the film did not receive an extraordinary reception from critics at Cannes. The film actually displays a fairly average score of 62/100 on Metacritic, a sort of critical barometer in the United States. These less than cheerful feedback could also have played on the doubts of the different studios to distribute it.
One thing is certain, the case of Ali Abbasi’s film seems to support the growing importance of a form of cultural censorship (in the United States). Difficult to find a work of such scope and criticism of the government having had such difficulty finding a distributor. We probably have to go back to a certain Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore, Palme d’Or 2004, extremely virulent towards Bush and his administration, only to find a somewhat similar situation.
At the time, Disney, parent company of Miramax, refused to distribute the film. Official reason: Disney’s brand image, fearing to broadcast a film that was too politicized. Unofficial reason: the studio’s possible fear of losing certain state funding (particularly in Florida), then governed by Jeb Bush, brother of President George W. Bush. In the end, Lionsgate, IFC Films and the Fellowship Adventure Group (a company created for the occasion by Miramax executives) formed a joint venture to distribute the project.
An alliance which made it possible to release the film only a month after his coronation. Twenty years later, difficult to imagine such a happy fate for The Apprentice given the situation much more complex. It remains to be hoped that the film will indeed have the right to be released in the United States. In any case, Ali Abbasi remains hopeful that his film will awaken spectators and cinemas a little on Twitter:
“ We have a new proposal for you. It’s not a fucking sequel or a fucking remake. It’s called The Apprentice and for some reason some influential people in your country don’t want you to see it!!!“
Not sure that all this eases tensions. To be continued…
