- Robert Pattinson is stepping into one of television’s most controversial true-crime stories in A24’s upcoming drama Primetime.
- The studio has released the first trailer, which sees the actor playing longtime journalist and To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen.
- The film revisits the rise of the NBC sting-operation series that became a pop culture phenomenon in the mid-2000s
Robert Pattinson is stepping into one of television's most controversial true-crime stories in A24's upcoming drama Primetime. The studio has released the first trailer for the film, which sees the actor portraying longtime journalist and To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen.
Made under the direction of Lance Oppenheim, the film revisits the rise of the NBC sting-operation series that became a pop culture phenomenon in the mid-2000s. According to the official synopsis, “In 2006, To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen sets out to make television history.”
The show featured Hansen confronting men who showed up to a house believing they were meeting an underage boy or girl. This was part of a sting operation in which the adults engaged in sexually explicit conversations with actors and members of law enforcement posing as minors. It featured hidden-camera sting operations in collaboration with law enforcement, resulting in dozens of arrests over its run.
The trailer follows Pattinson's character Hansen asking himself how the people portrayed on To Catch a Predator, show that confronts adult men who believed they were meeting minors for sex, would have behaved in these scenarios if they were not sting operations.
In one tense scene opposite a character played by Skyler Gisondo, Pattinson delivers Hansen's signature line, “What would have happened if I wasn't here. You see how this looks, right? At the end of the day, a man must be held accountable for the decisions that he makes, would you agree? Do you watch television? Well, there is something you should know. I'm Chris Hansen, with Dateline NBC, and you're about to be a part of television history.”
Primetime Cast
The show also stars Merritt Wever, Matthew Maher, Bokeem Woodbine, Skyler Gisondo, and Phoebe Bridgers, who is making her feature film acting debut. The 31-year-old previously appeared as herself in Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow. Mark your calendars! The show is scheduled to open in theatres this fall.
Premiering in 2004, To Catch a Predator originally hosted by Chris Hansen ran for 20 episodes that aired on NBC between 2004 and 2007. The series was cancelled in 2008.
The series became one of NBC's most talked-about programs before ending in 2008 following controversy surrounding a 2006 investigation in Texas that ended in the suicide of assistant district attorney Bill Conradt during a police raid. As SWAT entered, he shot himself in the head, dying soon thereafter.
Since the original series ended, Hansen has continued working on similar crime-focused projects, including Crime Watch Daily and Takedown with Chris Hansen on TruBlu.