Emmy-winning showrunner Armando Iannucci is struggling to get a project centered around President Donald Trump off the ground.
Iannucci, the mastermind behind the hit HBO series Veep, recently revealed that he’s putting together a piece based on Trump’s speeches. Funding for the project has been tricky, as he believes Hollywood studios fear Trump and the MAGA movement over potential retribution, especially after the recent suspension of Jimmy Kimmel.
Speaking at a Creative UK event in Liverpool, per Deadline, Iannucci paraphrased conversations he’s had about the project with U.S. investors: “I got a lot of, ‘Yeah, you wouldn’t get the money for that at the moment, I’m afraid.’ So I said, ‘Why not?’ [They replied] ‘Well, you know, if you want what comes with it…’”
He continued: “[I’ve been] talking to journalists out there who say, ‘If you’re on the list, your life is made miserable.’ [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.”
Not only are people in the U.S. afraid, but Iannucci, 61, said projects in the U.K. are also in flux due to Trump’s tariff threats.
“Nobody knows how it works, but that’s not the point. 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 said of investors’ hesitancy.
Despite the threats, Iannucci is determined to secure funding and go ahead with the project (which hasn’t been specified as being for TV or film), with or without U.S. investors.
“Let’s see what happens,” he said.
Iannucci’s remarks make him the latest figure to speak out about free speech following Kimmel’s suspension over his comments about slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, and the cancelation of Stephen Colbert’s eponymous late-night CBS show.
The shocking news came after Colbert called out the network’s parent company, Paramount, for its $16 million settlement with President Donald Trump.
This week, Jane Fonda relaunched the Committee for the First Amendment, an initiative originally founded by her father, Henry Fonda, in the 1940s to fight for the protection of free speech during the McCarthy era.
A spokesperson for the newly reformed committee told CNN that Fonda felt compelled to reconvene the group in response to “the onslaught of attacks on free speech from the current administration.” She hopes to create a “united front against government censorship, intimidation, and fear.”
Fonda has already gained the support of more than 550 celebrities and industry workers, including Pedro Pascal, Whoopi Goldberg, Billie Eilish, Quinta Brunson, Kerry Washington, Natalie Portman, Aaron Sorkin, Spike Lee, Viola Davis, and Ben Stiller.
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