Variety and other publications are reporting that Donald Trump really does get infected with AIDS at the very end of The Brothers Grimsby (Sony, 3.11). Brent Lang‘s Variety piece, posted two or three hours ago, says that the Trump AIDS-infection sequence “occurs during the film’s end credits and has received a raucous response from European audiences.”
Not that raucous, it would seem. Louis Letterier‘s film opened in England on 2.24 so why is this Trump story breaking only just now? Leslie Felperin’s 2.22 Hollywood Reporter review doesn’t mention it. Mark Kermode‘s 2.28 Observer review mentions “a supremely unfunny, endlessly repeated riff [about] HIV-infected blood,” but not the Trump connection.
Lang notes that while Sony has “included a disclaimer that explicitly states Trump wasn’t involved in the movie”, a Huffington Post story by Ryan Grim is claiming that the studio “pressured Baron Cohen to remove the scene over fears that the litigious Trump will sue the company.”
Lang quotes Sony spokesperson Jean Guerin denying that pressure was being placed on Baron Cohen to make cuts. “The report of a dispute with the filmmaker is absolutely ridiculous,” said Guerin. “We are 100 percent supportive of the filmmaker and the film.”
A source has told Lang that Baron Cohen, who produced, co-wrote and stars in the film, “has final cut on The Brother Grimsby, limiting Sony’s ability to influence the comedy’s content.”
The comedy is about an MI6 assassin (Mark Strong) and his no-account, low-rent brother (Baron Cohen) involved in violent spy shenanigans.
