Ex-Commanders owner Dan Snyder ‘fumes over negative portrayal of Donald Trump in movie he financed to flatter ex-POTUS’

Former Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder is reportedly fighting the release of “The Apprentice,” a Cannes Film Festival entry about his friend and Republican candidate Donald Trump, because the film is not sufficiently flattering of the 45th president.

Despite the title, the new film starring Jeremy Strong as Trump’s lawyer and fixer, Roy Cohn, is not about the real estate mogul’s famous NBC reality television series. Rather, it depicts Trump’s early business career and his turbulent relationship with his first wife, Ivana, played by Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova.

As reported by Variety, The film is being financed by a Snyder-backed company, Kinematics, which does not own the rights and cannot prevent the film’s release. However, Kinematics reportedly has a say in the film’s sales and distribution, and that could significantly complicate its release.

Snyder reportedly thought he was investing in a flattering portrayal of Trump, but in February became upset about multiple aspects of the project and began considering possible changes.

The screenplay reportedly included Ivana’s rape accusation against her ex-husband, which she recanted before dying in 2022 and which Trump has denied. A version of the scene is included in the current cut of the film, and an insider described it to Variety as “violent” and “awkward.”

Donald Trump (L) and Roy Cohn attend a party at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Washington in 1983

Snyder wears a Washington Commanders face mask after changing the team’s name in 2022

Snyder attorneys John Brownlee and Stuart Nash of Florida-based Holland & Knight did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment, nor did Gabriel Sherman, who wrote the screenplay. Similarly, Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi and his agency, CAA, declined comment to Variety.

Kinematics president Emanuel Nuñez has responded publicly, insisting that the creative differences on the project lie between himself and the filmmakers, without any mention of Snyder.

“All creative and business decisions involving ‘The Apprentice’ have been and will always be made solely by Kinematics. [CEO Mark H. Rapaport] and I run our business without the intervention of other third parties.’

Snyder isn’t The Apprentice’s only investor. According to Variety, the Canadian, Irish and Danish governments all also have a stake in the film.

The Apprentice was due to premiere in Cannes on Monday. It’s unclear if Snyder will attend, although his yacht was reportedly off the coast of Cannes as recently as Monday afternoon.

Snyder is a Trump supporter and reportedly donated $1.1 million to the 45th president’s inauguration fund, which also received similar contributions from other NFL owners such as Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots and Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys.

The 59-year-old billionaire sold the team in 2023 amid multiple waves of sexual harassment allegations against the team and Snyder specifically. Snyder was first fined $10 million by the league and later fined $60 million after multiple league investigations and congressional hearings.

Donald Trump is pictured next to his lawyer, Roy Cohn, who died in 1986 at the age of 59

Snyder also faced criticism for his refusal to change the team’s racist nickname, the Redskins, before being criticized by conservatives for reluctantly dropping the name in 2020.

Sebastian Stan plays Trump in ‘The Apprentice’. The central relationship in the film is that between Trump and Cohn, the lawyer who was chief counsel on Joseph McCarthy’s Senate investigations in the 1950s.

Cohn is portrayed as an old mentor of Trump, coaching him in the ruthlessness of politics and business in New York City. Early on, Cohn helped the Trump Organization when it was sued by the federal government for racial discrimination in housing.

Billed as inspired by true events, “The Apprentice” portrays Trump’s dealings with Cohn as a Faustian bargain that led to his rise as a businessman and later as a politician. Stan’s Trump is initially a more naive real estate enthusiast, who is quickly changed by Cohn’s education.

These and other rape scenes make ‘The Apprentice’ a potentially explosive big-screen drama in the midst of the US presidential election. The film is for sale in Cannes and therefore does not have a release date yet.

In The Apprentice, actor Sebastian plays Stan Trump as a younger man (left). Ivana (pictured, right) was married to Donald Trump (pictured, far right) from 1977 to 1990

In press releases for the film, Abbasi, whose previous film “Holy Spider” features a female journalist investigating a serial killer in Iran, said he had no intention of making “an episode of the History Channel.”

“This is not a biopic about Donald Trump,” Abbasi said. “We’re not interested in every detail of his life, from A to Z. We’re interested in telling a very specific story through his relationship with Roy and Roy’s relationship with him.”

Regardless of its political impact, “The Apprentice” will likely be widely discussed as a potential awards contender. Shot in a gritty ’80s aesthetic, the film returns Strong to a New York landscape of money and power, a year after the conclusion of HBO’s “Succession.” Strong, who is currently performing on Broadway in “An Enemy of the People,” did not attend the Cannes premiere on Monday.

‘The Apprentice’ is playing in competition in Cannes and is therefore eligible for the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or. In Cannes, filmmakers and casts hold press conferences the day after a film’s premiere. The press conference for ‘The Apprentice’ is Tuesday.