With a star-studded cast, the shooting of The Apprentice, a biopic about the rise to fame and power of former US President Donald Trump, started this week.
The upcoming movie explores the former US president’s early years as a New York real estate mogul, as well as his relationship with Roy Cohn, the controversial lawyer who mentored him and was later disbarred for unethical conduct.
Ali Abbasi, the Iranian filmmaker who recently won an Oscar nomination for his 2022 thriller Holy Spider, directs the film. He also directed the final two episodes of The Last of Us, a successful video game adaptation. Gabriel Sherman, the journalist and author of The Loudest Voice in the Room, a biography of Fox News founder Roger Ailes that was adapted into a 2019 miniseries starring Russell Crowe, wrote the script.
The movie’s logline describes it as “a mentor-protege story that charts the origins of an American dynasty” and “reveals the moral and human cost of a culture defined by winners and losers”.
Sebastian Stan, well known as Captain America’s friend and the star in Pam & Tommy, is set to play a young Trump. Cohn will be played by Jeremy Strong, who won an Emmy for his performance in Succession. Maria Bakalova, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role as Borat’s daughter, will portray Ivana, Trump’s first wife.