Armando Iannucci has revealed that he has been having trouble funding a Donald Trump project.
According to Deadline, the creator of Veep has been trying to launch an untitled work based on the US president’s speeches but has claimed that he is struggling to secure interest.
Iannucci was speaking at a Creative UK event in Liverpool and he paraphrased conversations he has been having with potential buyers in the US.
“I got a lot of: ‘Yeah, you wouldn’t get the money for that at the moment, I’m afraid.’” he said. “So I said: ‘Why not?’ [They replied:] ‘Well, you know, if you want what comes with it … ’”
His comments arrive at a time of concern over free speech under the second Trump administration. He added that he was warned of possible retribution.
“[I’ve been] talking to journalists out there who say, ‘If you’re on the list, your life is made miserable.’” he said. “[The message was], the inland revenue will come calling, you better lawyer up, you will spend the next four years just weighed down by legal issues you have to get through.”
While no more details were shared about the project, including whether it would be a TV series or film, he added that he was still determined to make it happen without US funding. “Let’s see what happens,” he said.
Iannucci also spoke about Trump’s renewed threats of tariffs for non-American production. “Nobody knows how it works, but that’s not the point,” he said. “The point is, there will be financiers in America about to give money to a project going: ‘Do you know what? Let’s just see how this plays out before I hand that over.’ And so you’ll have another project sitting there.”
Iannucci, whose film credits include The Death of Stalin and The Personal History of David Copperfield, was most recently an executive producer on comedy series The Franchise.
Last year’s 80s-set drama The Apprentice, which features Trump raping his then wife Ivana, was viewed by the president as defamatory and his lawyers sent a cease-and-desist letter to the producers. “This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalises lies that have been long debunked,” his then spokesperson Stephen Cheung said. “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.”
The film went on to receive two Oscar nominations for best actor and best supporting actor.
After the brief suspension of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel earlier this month over comments he made against the far right, the Writers Guild of America warned about the dangers of censorship. “The right to speak our minds and to disagree with each other – to disturb, even – is at the very heart of what it means to be a free people,” a statement read. “It is not to be denied. Not by violence, not by the abuse of governmental power, nor by acts of corporate cowardice.”
