Donald Trump is getting the big-screen treatment in a film called The Apprentice that will dramatize his rise to power, focusing on his early influences like attorney Roy Cohn.
Gabriel Sherman, special correspondent to Vanity Fair, who also authored a book about late Fox News founder Roger Ailes, The Loudest Voice in the Room, has been tapped to write the original screenplay for Amy Baer, who is producing the pic through her Gidden Media.
“As a journalist, I’ve reported on Donald Trump for more than 15 years,” Sherman said Wednesday in a statement. “I’ve long been fascinated by his origin story as a young builder coming up in the gritty world of 1970s and ‘80s New York. This formative period tells us so much about the man who today occupies the Oval Office.”
Sherman already has some Hollywood credentials, as his Ailes biography is being adapted for television. Showtime and Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Television are developing the project, with Oscar-winning writer-director Tom McCarthy executive producing.
Baer founded Gidden in 2012, and the company is currently readying Mary Shelley, a biopic of the author behind Frankenstein starring Elle Fanning, for a May 25 release by IFC Films.
“Gabe is an extraordinary storyteller as well as an impeccable journalist. The timeliness of this subject, combined with Gabe’s professional pedigree and integrity, makes this a rare alignment of talent and subject,” said Baer.
