Trump Film ‘The Apprentice’ Finds Distributor and Will Open before the Election

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump gestures after speaking at a campaign event, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Johnstown, Pa. (AP)

08:37-1 September 2024 AD ـ 27 Safar 1446 AH

Trump Film ‘The Apprentice’ Finds Distributor and Will Open before the Election

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump gestures after speaking at a campaign event, Friday, Aug. 30, 2024, in Johnstown, Pa. (AP)

After struggling to drum up interest following its Cannes Film Festival premiere, “The Apprentice,” starring Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump, has found a distributor that plans to release the film shortly before the election in November.

Briarcliff Entertainment will release “The Apprentice” on Oct. 11 in US and Canadian theaters, just weeks before Americans cast their ballots on Nov. 5.

Director Ali Abbasi, the Danish Iranian filmmaker, had prioritized getting “The Apprentice” into theaters before voters head to the polls. After larger studios and film distributors opted not to bid on the film, Abbasi complained in early June on X that “for some reason certain power people in your country don’t want you to see it!!!”

Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump campaign, in a statement Friday called the film’s release “election interference by Hollywood elites right before November.”

“This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, should never 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,” Cheung said.

Part of what dampened interest in “The Apprentice” was the potential threat of legal action. After its Cannes premiere in May, Cheung called the movie “pure fiction” and said the Trump team would file a lawsuit “to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers.”

“The Apprentice” chronicles Trump’s rise to power in New York real estate under the tutelage of defense attorney Roy Cohn (played by Jeremy Strong).

Abbasi has argued Trump might not dislike the movie.

“I would offer to go and meet him wherever he wants and talk about the context of the movie, have a screening and have a chat afterwards, if that’s interesting to anyone at the Trump campaign,” Abbasi said in May.

Briarcliff Entertainment has released films including the 2022 documentary “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” and the Liam Neeson thriller “Memory.” The indie distributor is run by Tom Ortenberg, who at Lionsgate helped released Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11” and as chief executive of Open Road backed the best picture Oscar winner “Spotlight.”

‘The Brutalist’ Cast Beams over Breadth of Film’s Story

This image released by A24 shows Adrien Brody in a scene from "The Brutalist." (Lol Crawley/A24 via AP)

11:20-17 December 2024 AD ـ 16 Jumada Al-Alkhirah 1446 AH

‘The Brutalist’ Cast Beams over Breadth of Film’s Story

This image released by A24 shows Adrien Brody in a scene from "The Brutalist." (Lol Crawley/A24 via AP)

The cast of the film “The Brutalist” is giving their director Brady Corbet all the credit when it comes to the strong acclaim for the movie.

“He's a special filmmaker because he focuses on psychology and behavior and those things that we as actors are genuinely interested in,” said Guy Pearce, who plays wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren.

“So, it was a real treat from start to finish,” he added.

The movie is an epic tale of a Hungarian immigrant who flees the horrors of World War Two to rebuild his life in the United States, and stars Oscar-winner Adrien Brody in the leading role of the architect Laszlo Toth.

"The Brutalist", which has a three-hour and 35-minute runtime and comes with a 15-minute intermission, was co-written by Corbet's wife, Mona Fastvold.

It was successful at the Venice International Film Festival earlier this year, with Corbet winning the best director prize.

The film, distributed by A24, arrives in movie theaters on Dec. 20 in the United States.

Brody, who had read the script nearly six years ago, expressed his deep connection to the story and his character through both his Hungarian-born mother and grandfather.

“Her [his mother’s] journey as an artist, her pursuits as an artist are deeply profound and linked to this,” he said.

For Brody, the role connected him with his mother’s yearning to leave something of great meaning behind, which was enhanced when contrasted with an understanding of hardship.

He also thought of his own grandfather's struggles with language and assimilation as a foreigner without work opportunities or respect.

“That (respect) was lost and taken from him,” Brody added.

His grandfather, fleeing from home due to the war, largely shaped the actor’s perspective of his role.

For “The Theory of Everything” actress Felicity Jones, who portrays Toth’s wife in the film, Erzsebet Toth, some of the most compelling aspects of the film are its characters and unique storytelling style.

“These characters, particularly Laszlo and Erzsebet, you know, they're doing everything they can to preserve their integrity and their self-worth,” she said.

Brody was recently nominated for a Golden Globe for best performance for a male actor in a motion picture drama and is receiving Oscar buzz for his role.

For “The Pianist” actor, having a strong team was key to the power of the film.

“In order to do work on this level, you need all of those to conspire with you and not against you,” Brody said.

Trump Film ‘The Apprentice’ Finds Distributor and Will Open before the Election

Trump Film ‘The Apprentice’ Finds Distributor and Will Open before the Election

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‘The Brutalist’ Cast Beams over Breadth of Film’s Story

‘The Brutalist’ Cast Beams over Breadth of Film’s Story

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