A star-studded cast, a leading director and an eight-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival hasn’t been enough to save a controversial Donald Trump biopic from begging for donations to fund its release.

The upcoming release of The Apprentice is especially timely given Trump will face US voters in the presidential election in just a few weeks.

But it comes after a troubled path from conception to screen.

The filmmakers had to launch a Kickstarter campaign to help ensure the movie could have an October theatrical release in the US.

Their goal of $148,000 was quickly surpassed – likely a point of vindication, given the obstacles those behind the project faced in getting it out to the world.

1970s setting

Directed by acclaimed Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi and starring Sebastian Stan as Trump, The Apprentice is set in 1970s New York.

“There wasn’t a lot of competition,” Stan has said of taking on the role.

“It was one of those things I thought: If this isn’t going to happen, it’s not going to happen because of me. It’s not going to not happen because I’m scared.”

The Apprentice follows a young Donald Trump as he attempts to escape his powerful father’s shadow.

Right-wing lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) teaches him how to gain wealth and power through deception, intimidation and media manipulation.

Audible gasps

According to The Hollywood Reporter, several moments from the film – including a depiction of Trump’s alleged rape of first wife Ivana and a scene showing Trump getting liposuction – drew audible gasps from the audience at its Cannes premiere.

(Ivana later said her use of the word “rape” in her divorce deposition was intended literally, and rather she had felt violated.)

And, despite its reception at one of the world’s biggest film festivals and deals with distributors in several countries, The Apprentice has struggled to find an American distributor for theatrical or streaming release.

All of the major studios passed. It was widely speculated the reluctance stemmed from a cease-and-desist letter sent by Trump’s team to try to block the independently-produced film’s US sale and release.

But late last month, according to The Hollywood Reporter, it was picked up by Briarcliff Entertainment for a pre-election US release on October 11.

‘Crazy’ project

“This project has been pretty crazy, from beginning to the end,” Abbasi said, as the Kickstarter fundraiser was launched.

“It’s still not completely there. It’s going to get more crazy, maybe.”

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told NBC News the former president’s team intended to file a lawsuit “to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend filmmakers”, declaring the movie represented “election interference by Hollywood elites”.

“This ‘film’ is pure malicious defamation, should not see the light of day, and doesn’t even deserve a place in the straight-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-be-closed discount movie store. It belongs in a dumpster fire,” Cheung said.

Kinematics, one of The Apprentice‘s main original financiers, also exited the project amid “creative differences”; pro-Trump billionaire Dan Snyder financially backs Kinematics, and was reportedly unhappy with the film’s depiction of Trump.

The Apprentice producer Daniel Bekerman told THR he did not begrudge the big companies’ need to protect their business, but the reaction to the film from the people working at those companies was “almost universally very positive”.

The director argued films needed to be relevant again.