Robert Pattinson Becomes Chris Hansen in A24's 'Primetime' — but the Real Hansen Is Not Happy
Robert Pattinson plays Chris Hansen in Primetime, an A24 crime thriller set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival before reaching cinemas on September 25. The film is loosely adapted by first-time screenwriter Ajon Singh from an Esquire article by Luke Dittrich, and it marks director Lance Oppenheim's first scripted feature — his previous work includes the 2024 FX documentary Spermworld (The Hollywood Reporter).
The character at the centre of the film needs little introduction to American audiences of a certain vintage. NBC's To Catch a Predator ran from 2004 to 2007, with host Chris Hansen confronting would-be child predators in hidden-camera stings, often coordinated with law enforcement. Pattinson produces Primetime as well as starring in it, and has described the work of mastering Hansen's distinctive voice for the role (The Hollywood Reporter). Merritt Wever co-stars, with Anna Faris and Skyler Gisondo also in the cast (A24; IMDb).
Oppenheim calls his approach to the material "docufantasia" — a blend of documentary instinct and dramatic invention. He and his team made a conscious decision not to involve Hansen in the making of the film (The Hollywood Reporter).
Hansen himself has been vocal about that exclusion. He has questioned what he called "Hollywood's motive" in making the film, and suggested that comedian Denis Leary would have been a better casting choice than Pattinson (The Hollywood Reporter). After the Primetime trailer dropped, Hansen acknowledged it "looks very dramatic" and described both Pattinson and Oppenheim as "popular," though the tone of those remarks carried clear edge (The Hollywood Reporter).
The friction goes beyond words. Hansen said A24 presented him with a nondisclosure agreement before a pre-premiere screening and asked him to sign away rights to his own name. He declined to sign and has not seen the film. A source close to A24 described the document as a standard NDA used for the studio's pre-premiere screenings (The Hollywood Reporter). Hansen has also purchased advertisements to run before every screening of the film (The Hollywood Reporter), and told People magazine he is weighing his legal options regarding the project (People).
There is an odd personal wrinkle in all of this. Oppenheim's wife once bought him a recorded Cameo message from Hansen as a surprise gift celebrating the release of Spermworld — a small, coincidental link between the filmmaker and the man he chose to depict without consultation (The Hollywood Reporter).
What gives the standoff its bite is the collision between a studio that treats Hansen as a character and the real person who built a career on his own name. A24 has not publicly responded to Hansen's specific complaints. The film arrives in cinemas on September 25.
