The Apprentice, telling the story of Donald Trump in the 1980s, will be getting a bigger cinema release in the US after all.
Well that was quick.
According to Screen Daily, just a day after launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise $100,000 to keep The Apprentice in cinemas – and you can read more about that here – that target has been reached. Currently, the campaign is sitting on $150,000 with that amount set to keep rising.
Just to remind you, the film takes a rather negative look at the earlier years of ex-president Donald Trump, who is currently vying to be re-elected as the US’s Commander in Chief. After quite a kerfuffle, the film has been fully backed by investors. The crowdfunding campaign isn’t paying for the film, rather for (we imagine) spaces in cinemas and perhaps marketing materials to advertise its existence to the public.
There’s still 24 days to go in the campaign and while Kickstarter projects always start strongly before dipping somewhat, the production is set to receive a very welcome boost to its marketing and distribution war chest. The rather unusual tactic is also generating lots of headlines, something else that will surely help the aims of the film’s producers as they seek to play a role in influencing the public’s mindset ahead of the US elections in November.
The film arrives here in the UK on 18th October, with Studiocanal having long since snapped up the local rights to the movie. Furthermore, it’s just been announced that The Apprentice will play at the London Film Festival, and it’ll also be appearing at the Toronto International Film Festival as well. Its profile is set to rise in the weeks ahead.
Here’s a newly released clip from the film…
And we’ll leave you with the synopsis…
A young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan), eager to make his name as a hungry scion of a wealthy family in 1970s New York, comes under the spell of Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), the cutthroat attorney who would help create the Donald Trump we know today. Cohn sees in Trump the perfect protégé—someone with raw ambition, a hunger for success, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win.
