Trump biopic moves towards distribution deal

Hollywood executives like to characterize themselves as fearless. The truth is that they spend most of their time minimizing risk.

That’s why theaters are full of bland sequels. That’s why so many Hollywood power players hide behind PR people. And that’s why every major movie studio and streaming service—and, in fact, most indie film companies—refused to distribute “The Apprentice,” a dramatized origin story about Donald J. Trump that the former president has called “malicious smear” and showered with cease-and-desist letters.

But the film world still has at least one wildcatter: Tom Ortenberg.

Mr. Ortenberg, 63, and his Briarcliff Entertainment are committed to an agreement to acquire “The Apprentice” for wide release in U.S. theaters in September or early October — close enough to the presidential election to enjoy the heat, but far enough away to avoid the late-stage media overload to avoid. Briarcliff’s pursuit of the $16 million film was confirmed by five people involved in the sales process, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private negotiation.

“Tom has more courage than most people in Hollywood put together,” says Stephen Galloway, dean of Chapman University’s film school. “His interest in these kinds of films is obviously business related. He sees that there’s money to be made by leveraging millions of dollars of free publicity. But part of it is that he wants to do his part. He’s a liberal and cares about social issues.”

Hurdles remain, the people warned. “Apprentice” producers raised the money to make the film from several sources. One was Kinematics, a fledgling film company backed by former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder — and a Trump supporter. Kinematics, which has invested about $5 million, was supposed to sign off on the deal with Briarcliff and turned it down, calling the offer substandard, according to the five people involved in the sale process. The Kinematics issue was previously reported in a Puck newsletter.

Therefore, producers have put together a package to buy out Kinematics at a premium. The parties are now negotiating the terms, including the time of payment.

Briarcliff will have to act quickly to effect a fall release: marketing materials must be prepared; theaters need to be booked (and some may refuse). “The Apprentice” has signed distribution deals for Canada, Europe and parts of Asia. Once the film starts playing overseas (sometime this fall), it will become available on global piracy sites, decreasing its value to a U.S. distributor.

Mr. Ortenberg declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the film and its lead producers also declined to comment, as did Kinematics.

Throughout his four-decade film career, Mr. Ortenberg has repeatedly championed films deemed too popular for the Hollywood establishment to handle. Not all of his bets have paid off. But some have — spectacularly.

In 2004, after Disney refused to release “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Michael Moore’s searing documentary about the George W. Bush administration and the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, it was Mr. Ortenberg, then president of the fledgling Lionsgate, who picked up the film. When theaters in conservative parts of the country refused to show the film, Mr. Ortenberg went on the offensive.

“What these chains are doing is a terrible precedent for the movie business, and it shows just how fragile the First Amendment is,” Mr. Ortenberg told The New York Times at the time. “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which was produced by Harvey Weinstein, grossed $222 million in worldwide box office sales, or about $368 million in today’s dollars, the most ever for a documentary. The documentary cost less than $10 million to make.

The resume of Mr. Ortenberg also includes Kevin Smith’s “Dogma,” a 1999 profane religious satire that was greeted with protests, boycotts and death threats, and Oliver Stone’s “W,” a 2008 comedic dig at Mr. Bush. Mr. Ortenberg was also behind “Spotlight,” the 2015 Oscar-winning newspaper drama about the Roman Catholic Church’s cover-up of sexual abuse by priests.

In 2020, Briarcliff distributed “The Dissident,” about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the attempted cover-up by the Saudi government. In that case too, Mr. Ortenberg intervened after Hollywood companies refused to distribute the film. “The Dissident” was a flop in limited theatrical release but found a modest audience on home video.

“The Apprentice,” which debuted last month to mostly favorable reviews at the Cannes Film Festival, dramatizes Mr. Trump’s origin story, focusing on his rise through the New York real estate business of the 1970s and ’80s and his mentorship by Roy Cohn, the ruthless power broker. Sebastian Stan, best known for his role as Bucky Barnes in Marvel superhero films, plays Mr. Trump. Jeremy Strong portrays the pugnacious Cohn, complete with burnt bacon tan. Mr. Strong, an Emmy winner for HBO’s “Succession,” recently won a Tony Award for his performance in “An Enemy of the People” on Broadway.

According to people involved in the sale, Briarcliff wants to position both actors as Oscar contenders.

“The Apprentice” also stars Maria Bakalova (“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”) as Ivana Trump. A searing scene shows Mr. Trump throwing her to the ground and attacking her. In real life, she accused him of rape in a statement regarding their divorce in 1991. She the claim was rejectedsaying she did not mean rape in the “criminal sense.” She died in 2022.

Kinematics, citing potential legal liability, urged the film’s director, Ali Abbasi, to remove or shorten the already brief scene before its Cannes premiere; Abbasi refused. Other scenes in the film depict Trump as addicted to speedlike diet pills and undergoing surgery to have fat sucked away.

Last month, Trump threatened a lawsuit to block the film’s release. “This garbage is pure fiction that sensationalizes lies that have long been debunked,” Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesman, told reporters at the time.

A lawsuit from Mr. Trump would create headaches for Briarcliff and the producers, but courts — citing First Amendment protections — have consistently sided with filmmakers in similar cases over the years.

The lead producers of “The Apprentice” are Amy Baer, ​​the founder and CEO of CBS Films and a former Sony Pictures executive, and Daniel Bekerman, a scrappy indie producer with credits including “The Witch” (2015). “The Apprentice” is written by Gabriel Sherman, known for “The Loudest Voice in the Room,” a best-selling 2014 biography of Roger Ailes, the disgraced political operative and leader of Fox News.

Companies that passed on “The Apprentice” declined to comment or did not respond to questions. Among them were Focus Features, Sony, Searchlight, Netflix, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Amazon’s Prime Video and A24.

In conversations with sales agents for the film, the uninterested companies justified their position with various explanations, according to the people involved in the film’s distribution negotiations. A few potential distributors liked the film, but not good enough to risk the all-but-guaranteed backlash — not just from Trump’s lawyers, but from the broader MAGA world.

Other potential distributors have worried about Mr. Trump’s retribution if he were re-elected. During his first term, Mr. Trump’s Justice Department tried to block AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner, which owned CNN. The move was generally seen as retaliation for CNN’s reporting that angered Trump.

The box office prospects for “The Apprentice” are unclear. Sequels are successful, but original films — dramas in particular — struggle to break through. Politically oriented films have largely moved to streaming. “The Apprentice” could also fall into a divide, with Trump supporters boycotting the film and liberal audiences turning away.

“It’s hard for me to imagine an American in a red collar seeing it,” Mr. Galloway from Chapman University. “Will others be willing to pay $20 to consume more Trump? Maybe. Maybe not.”