Robert Pattinson in ‘Primetime’.
| Photo Credit: A24/YouTube
Chris Hansen isn’t impressed with how he has been portrayed in Primetime. The crime thriller, directed by Lance Oppenheim and starring Robert Pattinson, hit the screens on September 25, 2026. It is based on the controversial 2000s television show To Catch a Predator, hosted by Hansen.
According to Variety, Hansen appeared on Fox News “Jesse Watters Primetime” in August and revealed he left A24’s offices without watching the film after the distributor asked him to sign a legal agreement. Hansen described the agreement as unlike anything he had encountered before. He also criticised Robert Pattinson’s acting as “overly dramatic,” although he noted that his family thought the impression was fairly accurate.
After watching Oppenheim’s movie, Hansen gave his complete reaction. “It was so bizarre and so in-and-out of reality,” Hansen said in a video shot outside a theatre. “Obviously, I’m not objective because the character is, you know, me, but it was so detached from reality or anything I’ve experienced then or now doing the investigations. I’m not sure what the point of it was.”
Hansen said he would share his full thoughts on his podcast and YouTube channel. A24 has described the movie as “inspired by true events,” rather than a traditional biopic. Pattinson plays Hansen in 2006, during the period when To Catch a Predator was transitioning from Dateline NBC to its own primetime block.
The movie explores the behind-the-scenes reality and media frenzy surrounding the controversial show. The Hindu review said, “The delicious irony is imagining Hansen sitting through Primetime as his own moral crusade is transmuted into prestige entertainment for the very audience that has spent years consecrating him as a kind of secular patron saint of potential victims. Surely that cannot constitute an abuse of spectatorship. Surely this is an acceptable commodification of evil. Surely this is still God’s work.”
Published – September 26, 2026 09:17 pm IST
