Chris Hansen launches own documentary trailer in swipe at Pattinson film Primetime
Chris Hansen has answered becoming a film character with a trailer for his own version of the story.
His streaming network TruBlu unveiled the trailer for the documentary I'm Chris Hansen on Friday, 25 September, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film is about and stars Hansen himself and was three years in the making.
The timing is tied to Primetime, the A24 feature that casts Robert Pattinson as Hansen, the television journalist known for To Catch a Predator. That NBC series used hidden cameras and on-site confrontations to expose men who arrived to meet minors. The Primetime trailer features Pattinson in character delivering the line “I’m Chris Hansen with Dateline NBC,” as reported by Deadline.
Hansen has criticised the fictionalised portrayal in strong terms. He called Primetime “a complete work of fiction attached to a real name” in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. He went further in an interview with USA Today, describing the film as “identity theft” and saying the only lines in it he actually said in real life are “I’m Chris Hansen” and “have a seat”. He had previously called the project an “insult”.
He acknowledged he had not seen the finished film at the time of the latest interview. The reason, he said, was that he refused to sign a nondisclosure agreement to view it in advance. He added that he has no issue with Pattinson personally, describing him as a great actor and a nice guy.
Hansen is also taking the fight to cinemas. He said he bought TruBlu advertisements to run ahead of all Primetime screenings. TruBlu, which also carries Takedown, the predator-investigation programme produced by Hansen’s team, costs $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year.
What makes this stand out is the head-to-head programming. Hansen’s team says the I’m Chris Hansen documentary was already underway before they knew about the A24 film and was nearing completion. Now viewers will get two versions weeks apart: Pattinson playing Hansen, and Hansen playing himself.
