In this episode of The Hollywood Beat, Reba and Tandy look at two films that have nothing in common other than that they both skirt the fringes of politics, and both are rooted in fact.
The first film is the origin story of a young man who comes under the tutelage of a ruthless lawyer who molds his charge into an equally ruthless businessman. The second film depicts a terrorist attack at the world’s preeminent sporting venue.
The Apprentice from Iranian director Ali Abasi is the story of Donald Trump’s early days in New York City as he tries to gain traction as a real estate developer. There he meets attorney Roy Cohn, a conservative firebrand notorious for his work with Senator Joseph McCarthy of fifties Hollywood Blacklist fame. The original screenplay comes from journalist and author Gabe Sherman. (Sherman is a special correspondent for Vanity Fair and is the author of the nonfiction bestseller about the late Fox News Channel executive Roger Ailes, The Loudest Voice in the Room.
September 5 is also from an original screenplay, this by writer-director Tim Fehlbaum and Alex Davis along with German screenwriter Moritz Binder. The time is the summer of 1972, and the setting is the Olympic Village in Munich, Germany. Peter Sarsgaard portrays ABC TV sports chief Roone Arledge who very quickly finds himself presiding over one of the network’s biggest news stories since its inception. Members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village and took much of the Israeli team hostage.