Donald Trump is trying to block the release of The Apprentice , and now the producers of the film are firing back. "The film is a fair and balanced portrait of the former president," the producers of the biopic said in a statement to ET. "We want everyone to see it and then decide.
" As first reported by Variety , the former president's legal team sent a cease and desist to the filmmakers behind the biopic warning them not to pursue a distribution deal. The film has generated a ton of buzz for a couple of reasons, the first of which is that the Ali Abbasi-directed film includes Trump raping his first wife, the late Ivana Trump, who died in July 2022 as a result of suffering " blunt impact injuries of the torso ." The former couple, who wed in 1977 and divorced in 1992, shared three children -- Donald Jr.
, 46, Ivanka, 42, and Eric, 40. According to CBS News , Ivana used the word "rape" to describe a sexual encounter between her and Trump when she gave a deposition during her and Trump's divorce in 1990. In the years that followed, Ivana walked back the rape accusation, telling CBS News in 2015 that she made the allegation "at a time of very high tension during my divorce from Donald.
" Secondly, The Apprentice generated a ton of buzz on Monday during its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where the film -- staring Sebastian Stan , Maria Bakalova and Jeremy Strong -- received nearly a 10-minute standing ovation . According to Deadline , the crowd was uproarious for as lo.
