Politics and Cinema: Navigating Challenges

A biopic of former president Donald Trump released right before the election seems ripe for box office success. But when screenwriter Gabriel Sherman looked for a distributor for his new film The Apprentice, Trump threatened legal action, and major studios got cold feet. Today on Lever Time, Sherman sits down with David Sirota and Arjun Singh to discuss the battle to release The Apprentice and how Wall Street’s Hollywood takeover is making it more difficult for political films to get made.

In the early 2000s, a seismic shift happened in Hollywood. After decades of movie-studio dominance, media deregulation and favorable market conditions opened the doors for Wall Street to move in and consolidate the industry. the balance of power shifted from filmmakers to bankers. Now, with a potential Trump presidency looming, some filmmakers are concerned it could cast a chill over the industry and frighten studios from backing films that could be seen as critical of Trump or his allies.