‘The Apprentice’ distributor backs the films Hollywood won’t
Independent film distributor Tom Ortenberg didn’t think he had chance of securing the rights to the Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice when he saw it debut to rapturous applause at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
But it turns out no one else wanted the Ali Abbasi-directed movie, which stars Sebastian Stan as Trump in the early years of his business career and Succession’s Jeremy Strong as US prosecutor Roy Cohn. The film depicts Trump getting liposuction, taking amphetamines and sexually assaulting his then-wife Ivana.
Trump’s presidential campaign has threatened legal action in a bid to block its release. Dan Snyder, a billionaire financier of the film and a Trump donor, also tried to block its release after realizing it didn’t offer a flattering portrait of the former president. Snyder ultimately sold his stake in the film.
Ortenberg’s Briarcliff Entertainment was the only party that made a compelling offer to distribute the picture, which releases in US cinemas on Oct. 11.
“This really is a fantastic picture and it needs to be seen,” Ortenberg said in an interview.
Ortenberg’s bet is typical of Briarcliff’s business model. Since its founding in 2018, the film production and distribution company has built a slate of titles often beloved by critics and audiences but shunned by Hollywood’s traditional players.
The company acquires theatrical rights at prices lower than they would be at competitive auctions and earns back a percentage of box office sales. In the coming months, Briarcliff will seek to raise $25 million to $50 million in return for a minority stake in the business. Ortenberg will remain the company’s majority shareholder.
Earlier this month, Briarcliff bought the rights to distribute Magazine Dreams, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023 but was ultimately dropped by Walt Disney Co.’s Searchlight Pictures after lead actor Jonathan Majors was found guilty of assaulting and harassing his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari.
Ortenberg, a former president of theatrical film at Lions Gate Studios Corp. and a founder of movie studio Open Road Films, describes himself as a “free-speech absolutist.” He said Majors’ performance, as well as that of other cast members, deserves the same distribution opportunity as any other film not mired in controversy.
A donor to Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, Ortenberg is keen to take on movies wherever they may fall on the political spectrum. In 2016, the same year he endorsed Bernie Sanders for president, Ortenberg met with political commentator and conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza and made an offer to distribute his documentary Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party, despite his disagreeing with the film’s right-wing tropes.
Briarcliff didn’t end up getting the rights to Hillary’s America, but over the years, Ortenberg has distributed equally no-holds-barred films. They include the Michael Moore documentaries Fahrenheit 9/11 at Lions Gate and Fahrenheit 11/9 at Briarcliff; The Dissident, Bryan Fogel’s documentary about the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; and Spotlight, about systemic child sex abuse by numerous priests of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2016.
The Apprentice is also “clearly going to be an awards contender of some sort,” Ortenberg said. And despite the controversy, it should broadly appeal to the electorate, Ortenberg said, with Trump supporters likely to identify with the man portrayed on screen and Trump opponents likely to be disgusted by him. Releasing the film a month before the election isn’t meant as a political statement, but simply a marketing strategy to drive higher ticket sales, he said.
“I’m kind of saddened and disappointed that there aren’t more people in Hollywood willing to distribute controversial movies,” Ortenberg said. “But I sure am happy and thrilled to be here and able to do it. It’s been very good business.”
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