Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice had a North American premiere this past weekend at the Telluride Film Festival. Festival organizers intended to keep the screening under wraps within a “TBA” slot, but the secret was poorly kept. Festival goers buzzed about Jeremy Strong sightings and debated whether or not they wanted to make the long trek to the Chuck Jones Theater, accessible only via a 15-minute gondola right in the dark, to see the film.
The screening happened without incident, and stars Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong introduced the film along with director Abbasi. The reactions to the film from that secret screening seemed muted. No one I bumped into on Sunday either had seen the film or mentioned it at all. That’s not a judgment on its quality, of course. Still, after all of the buzz leading up to the screening, no one wanted to talk about it?
At any rate, Briaricliff Entertainment released today a 1-minute clip from the film, embedded below. Make rash judgments for yourself.
The Apprentice opens nationwide on October 11.
ABOUT THE APPRENTICE
Directed By: Ali Abbasi
Written By: Gabriel Sherman
Cast: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong, Maria Bakalova, Martin Donovan
A young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan), eager to make his name as a hungry scion of a wealthy family in 1970s New York, comes under the spell of Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), the cutthroat attorney who would help create the Donald Trump we know today. Cohn sees in Trump the perfect protégé—someone with raw ambition, a hunger for success, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win.
