Johnny Depp As Donald Trump?
FunnyOrDie is coming out with a 1980’s throwback film focusing on Republican candidate and mogul Donald Trump experienced a primary victory in New Hampshire. The movie will star Johnny Depp as the political candidate.
Variety shares details about the film that was directed by Ron Howard.
“The 50-minute “The Art of the Deal” film — which FOD says is “The New Film (Not) Based on the #1 National Bestselling Book by Donald Trump” — is directed by Jeremy Konner (“Drunk History”) and written by Joe Randazzo (The Onion, “@midnight”). The movie includes an intro from director Ron Howard.”
Additionally the movie stars Patton Oswalt as Merv Griffin, Alfred Molina as Jerry Schrager, Michaela Warkins as Ivana Trump, Jack McBrayer as Der Scutt (Trump’s architect), Henry Winkler as Ed Kock, who was New York City Mayor and Jacob Tremblay (Room), Andy Richter, Stephen Merchant, and Alf as themselves. Country crooner Kenny Loggins also appears and sings “The Art of the Deal” theme song.
The backstory to the film, a faux backstory to be more exact, involves 1988 Trump writing, directing, and starring in a made-for-TV movie that’s based on his very real and best-selling book entitled, The Art of the Deal. The film, however, never aired due to Trump allegedly becoming furious that his movie was bumped by a Monday Night Football game and refusing to let it be released.
The Guardian sheds light on the fantastic portrayal that Depp has of Trump in the comedic flick, but the publication wonders whether Trump is beyond parody or not. A synopsis of the film is given by the publication appropriately.
“Trump is a twitchy sociopath, obsessed with the holy grail of buying the Taj Mahal casino in New Jersey from Merv Griffin as the ultimate trophy possession and tormented by his constipation — stalking into the bathroom to strive, vainly, to relieve his bowels and plagued with visions of his boyhood self and his own dead body. His vulnerability horrifies him. As he says at the end of the scene: ‘I think I just had my Oscar moment.'”
The film spoofs the phase of Trump’s rise to success and greatness and focuses on his celebrity status as a real estate mogul in New York in the 70’s and 80’s.
About Depp’s performance, the publication offers mostly positive review.
“All good stuff from Depp, although by sending up Trump’s 1980s period, it feels a little off the money, and this is a figure who has already somehow absorbed derision into his skin and made himself immune to it. I was reminded of Peter Cook’s remark about how all those devastatingly witty 1930s Berlin cabarets saved Germany from the Nazis.”
Co-founder of FunnyofDie, Adam McKay relayed the craziness that ensued while getting the spoof on film.
It was a crazy, completely nuts idea that somehow we pulled it off.”
McKay partners alongside Will Ferrell and Judd Apatow. They focus on producing exclusive material that feature big name actors to draw in a big audience. McKay is also a nominee and in the running for an Academy Award for best picture for The Big Short. He states that “with any luck” the spoof will annoy the presidential candidate.
The New York Times draws attention to the fact that this is not the first occasion that FunnyorDie has mocked Trump.
“Like most comedy outlets, Funny or Die has mocked Mr. Trump before. In September, for instance, Mr. McKay was a co-writer of the script for a video called ‘Mexican Donald Trump,’ which found George Lopez playing Donaldo Trumpez and proposing a border wall to ‘keep the lazy Americans out’; it has since been viewed more than 10 million times on multiple platforms, according to a Funny or Die spokeswoman.”
[Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images]
