Billionaire Dan Snyder, former owner of the Washington Redskins (now Commanders), is reportedly blocking the domestic release of The Apprentice, a biopic that portrays Donald Trump as a rapist. Snyder, who supports Trump and has financial ties to the movie, is preventing its production company from signing a deal with Briarcliff Entertainment, the specialty distribution label responsible for recent releases like Luc Besson’s Dogman and the Liam Neeson-starrer Marlowe.
The Apprentice failed to secure a U.S. distributor at the Cannes Film Festival last month. Following its in-competition premiere, Trump’s campaign threatened to sue the filmmakers. The movie was independently financed and produced outside of Hollywood studios, with most of the funding coming from overseas companies as well as some domestic investors.
The film shows Trump (portrayed by actor Sebastian Stan) raping his first wife, Ivana Trump. It also depicts Donald Trump undergoing plastic surgery and liposuction. The late Ivana Trump denied her then-husband ever raped her. The Apprentice’s director, Ali Abbasi, expressed hope that the movie would be released before the November presidential election, preferably during the debates. However, even left-wing news outlets acknowledge that the film is unlikely to have any significant impact on voters in the upcoming election.