It’s hard to escape seeing Donald Trump’s name in the headlines as his latest court case plays out on news stations across the nation and time marches on to the November election. Although some may have had their fill of seeing the businessman-turned-politician’s name everywhere, filmmaker Ali Abbasi is grateful for the free marketing. The director’s latest project, The Apprentice, will follow the former President’s blossoming real estate career in New York City during the 1970s and 1980s with Sebastian Stan stepping into the shoes of the controversial figure. The production celebrated its world premiere on Monday at the Cannes Film Festival and, during a press conference that followed, which was attended by Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Abbassi shared some quippy remarks about when audiences can expect to see his biographical drama on the big screen.

“We have a promotional event coming up called [the] U.S. election that’s going to help us with the movie. So we’re hoping very much that it can come out – if I’m remembering right – the second debate’s going to be on September 15 , something like that. So that’s a good release date for us I would say.”

Along with Stan, the movie will also feature performances from Jeremy Strong (Succession) as Roy Cohn, Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm) as Ivana Trump, Martin Donovan (Simple Men) as Fred Trump, and Joe Pingue (The Book of Eli) as Anthony Salerno. Primarily, the plot will center itself around the growing relationship between Trump and Cohn as the pair grow their friendship with Cohn taking Trump under his wing.

Ali Abbasi Steps Out Of His Comfort Zone With ‘The Apprentice’

Abbasi has already won over audiences and peers with his exquisite work behind titles like 2018’s Swedish-language fantasy flick Border and the 2022 Persian-language crime thriller, Holy Spider but he says The Apprentice is something totally different. While responding to a question from Weintraub regarding the editing process, Abbasi said:

“I’ve been hearing so much that I make slow movies with deliberate pacing that I was like ‘I’m going to make a f—ing fast movie.’ [Laughs] I have to. And I think it’s in the nature of this movie, in the manic nature of this character and this world and universe, it has to have that manic pace . It has to feel short.”

Stay tuned to Collider for more information on Abbasi’s The Apprentice

via Collider