Billionaire and Donald Trump supporter Dan Snyder helped pay for a Donald Trump movie but is now furious after realizing the film isn’t actually flattering to Trump, according to a new report from Variety.
“The Apprentice,” directed by Ali Abbasi, makes its world premiere at Cannes Film Festival on Monday. Starring Sebastian Stan as Trump and Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn, the movie follows Trump’s early years in business in the 1970s and 80s, according to IMDB.
Sources told Variety that Snyder — a major GOP donor and the former owner of the Washington Redskins — poured money into the new movie through a film company called Kinematics, thinking the biopic would be favorable to the former president.
But Snyder was livid at the film’s depiction of Trump when saw a cut of the movie for the first time in February, sources told Variety.
Though little is known about the film and few have seen it ahead of its Cannes debut, Variety cited an insider who said the current cut features a scene in which Stan’s Trump gets violent with his former wife, Ivana Trump.
Ivana Trump accused Trump of rape in a 1989 divorce filing but later walked back her accusation in 2015.
Following Snyder’s viewing of the film, Kinematics lawyers launched an intense legal battle with the filmmakers to prevent its release, Variety reported.
However, Kinematics president Emanuel Nuñez told Variety that Snyder has not been involved in the creative differences over the film and that all “creative and business decisions” about the movie are “solely made by Kinematics.”
Regardless, Kinematics doesn’t have the power to halt the film’s release because it doesn’t own the copyright, Variety reported.
Representatives for Snyder, Kinematics, and Ali Abbasi didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Other investors in the movie include the governments of Canada, Ireland, and Denmark, according to Variety.
Trump has not yet commented on the film.
