When is ‘The Apprentice’ coming out? Release date of the movie Donald Trump doesn’t want you to watch

The Apprentice, a controversial Donald Trump biopic that has had to negotiate a rocky road towards securing its theatrical release in the United States, is set to hit American movie theaters next week.

Named after the reality-TV show that Trump co-produced and starred in, The Apprentice chronicles the early years of the former US president’s real-estate career, with a particular focus on the 78-year-old’s relationship with prosecutor Roy Cohn, his one-time attorney and mentor.

Directed by Ali Abassi and written by Gabriel Sherman, The Apprentice offers up a damning depiction of Trump. Most notably, the film features a scene in which he sexually assaults his first wife Ivana, who he was married to between 1977 and 1990.

When is The Apprentice released in the US?

Starring Sebastian Stan as Trump, Jeremy Strong as Cohn and Maria Bakalova as Ivana, The Apprentice is due out in US cinemas on Friday October 11, 2024.

The Apprentice - watch the trailer:

Trump issues Apprentice legal threat

In May this year, days after The Apprentice received a long standing ovation following its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, Trump’s team threatened to sue the filmmakers, sending a cease-and-desist letter that branded the picture “a concoction of lies”.

In a statement published by Variety, Steve Cheung, the communications manager for Trump’s presidential re-election bid, said of The Apprentice: “This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, should not 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.”

In August, Cheung then told Deadline: “This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalizes lies that have been long debunked.”

In response to Trump’s cease-and-desist letter, The Apprentice’s producers said in a statement issued to media outlets: “The film is a fair and balanced portrait of the former president. We want everyone to see it and then decide.”

In an interview with The Wrap last month, Abassi added: “This movie is very much fact-based and fact-checked. There’s rigorous journalistic work around it.”

US distributors put off film

Thanks, in no small measure, to Trump’s so far unfulfilled legal threats, the makers of The Apprentice struggled to persuade distributors to take up the movie in the US. However, a deal was finally reached this summer with the independent film company Briarcliff Entertainment.

The movie’s US release comes a month before Trump, the Republican nominee, faces Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the US presidential election, with Americans due to go to the ballot box on Tuesday November 5.