On Wednesday February 10, Funny or Die released a 50-minute biopic of the republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. “The Art of the Deal: The Movie” starring Johnny Depp as presidential hopeful Donald Trump took everyone by surprise today.
Adam McKay, the comedy’s website founder, worked on the parody since November 2015, casting all sorts of top comedians as Jacob Tremblay, Patton Oswalt and Andy Ritcher. The short film takes its title from Trump’s 1987 literary masterpiece with the same name.
Also, one actor of the film who is playing himself on this occasion is the very own Ron Howard, as he narrates the story as it develops. Mr. Howard supposedly discovered this Hollywood relic. Adam McKay, while on the phone with Howard said that his site “views the movie as an important historical document that has been hidden away, much like Jerry Lewis’ Holocaust clown movie.”
The film, grainy and faded, portrays Trump as a megalomaniac and a buffoon. Joe Randazzo, a former editor of the Onion, wrote the play while Jeremy Konner directed the spoof. Producers Adam McKay, Will Ferrell and Judd Apatow were in charge of keeping the whole setup a secret, which they successfully did. “Successful people are always on the phone – even if there’s no one on the other end,” said the portrayed Trump as he lectures a boy in one scene.
In an interview with the New York Times, Adam McKay spilled out the cast for the short “biopic” film. In addition to Depp, The Art of the Deal also features Alfred Molina, Robert Morse, Jack McBrayer, Michaela Watkins, Henry Winkler, Stephen Merchant, Rob Huebel and even Alf, the Martian. The fake biopic will accompany viewers with Trump’s journey from childhood to the Oval office, featuring an “absolutely bananas” performance by Depp, according to the New York Times press release.
The film opens with Depp as Trump waxing poetic about his big ambitions when he was just a boy in 1956.
“On my 10th birthday, I saw something that changed my life,” Depp begins in a highly impressive Trump accent. “A picture of a kid standing in front of the Taj Mahal. It was gorgeous, it was huge, and it was easily the classiest thing ever built by a Muslim, so I vowed that day to build my own Taj Mahal”. Later in the film, Trump shows up from the future, introducing himself as the president and talking about a cabinet meeting with Carmen Elektra.
Source: The New York Times