Donald Trump movie depicting rise to power in 1980s sold for UK audience ahead of Cannes premiere

Dramatisation of Trump’s ‘Faustian deal’ with fixer Roy Cohn to appear in British cinemas later this year, StudioCanal says

A feature film dramatising Donald Trump’s rise to power in 1980s America is set to be screened in UK cinemas under a new deal inked as the movie premieres at the Cannes Film Festival.

Biographical drama The Apprentice will be appear in cinemas in Britain later this year, StudioCanal said on Thursday, as the distribution giant announced the acquisition of the 120-minute film for the UK and Ireland.

Featuring Pam & Tommy star Sebastian Stan as Mr Trump and Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) as Ivana Trump, the film is described as “a dive into the underbelly of the American empire.”

“It charts a young Donald Trump’s ascent to power through a Faustian deal with the influential right-wing lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn,” a plot description states.

The film – directed by Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi (Holy Spider, Border) and written by Vanity Fair correspondent Gabe Sherman – will premiere in Cannes at the Grand Theatre Lumiere on Monday night.

It will also feature Succession star Jeremy Strong as Mr Trump’s infamous mentor Roy Cohn, and Tenet’s Martin Donovan as the former US president’s father, Fred Trump Sr.

Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump in ‘The Apprentice’ (APPRENTICE PRODUCTIONS ONTARIO INC. / PROFILE PRODUCTIONS 2 APS / TAILORED FILMS LTD. 2023)

The premiere comes as Mr Trump fights an explosive hush money trial in New York, where he is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records.

The trial concerns a $130,000 payment made by his former attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen to adult film star Stormy Daniels to remain quiet about a 2006 alleged affair with Mr Trump in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Last week, the judge overseeing the trial warned they would consider putting the former president in prison if he continued to violate a gag order intended to protect witnesses, jurors, court staff and their families, after repeated social media posts violating court rules.

Trump was threatened with prison if he continues to violate a gag order intended to protect witnesses and jurors (EPA)

The Apprentice will be released in cinemas across the UK and Ireland in 2024, The Hollywood Reporter cited StudioCanal as announcing on Thursday.

This could see the film hit theatres as American voters go to the polls in the upcoming US presidential elections – in which Mr Trump is running as the Republican candidate.