Is 'Primetime' Based on a True Story? Inside the A24 Film Starring Robert Pattinson

Former To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen is not a fan of the new A24 film Primetime.

Released on September 25, the Lance Oppenheim-directed film stars Robert Pattinson as Hansen as he "sets out to make television history" in 2006.

"I never really set out to make a movie about Chris Hansen. I would hope in some ways, like, the amount of inspiration that his character has kind of given certain people who are involved in this for like years now, I hope [it's] some kind of compliment," Pattinson said at a press conference for Primetime in Italy on September 5.

Pattinson also acknowledged Hansen's influence on the film and how he became increasingly fascinated by the former Dateline NBC correspondent while researching the role.

"I think the more you watch a show, there's something like magnetic about his presence," he added. "I watched a show when I was younger and I didn't even think about it. I mean, when you kind of obsessively watch it, you realize there's a strange alchemy with what's going on with the status of the show and how it was directed and how things got together and the time period."

He continued, "But something he's doing is the reason why people are still talking about that show 20 years later. And it's not to do necessarily solely with subject matter. I just think there was something about the show that was very groundbreaking, kind of breaking the rules of television."

As the film continues to draw reactions from Hansen, questions have emerged about whether Primetime is a true story or a heavily fictionalized account.

According to its synopsis, A24's Primetime is set in 2006, when "To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen sets out to make television history."

The film's cast also includes Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers, Matthew Maher and Bokeem Woodbine.

The film's creative team said Primetime was loosely inspired by Hansen and his work building the popular but controversial Dateline series To Catch a Predator. Airing from 2004 to 2007, the program sought to expose men attempting to meet minors they had contacted online, relying on adult volunteers from the watchdog group Perverted-Justice who posed as children and teenagers.

The film also drew partial inspiration from the 2007 Esquire article "Tonight on Dateline, This Man Will Die," which examined a To Catch a Predator investigation involving Louis William "Bill" Conradt Jr. The Texas prosecutor died by suicide in November 2006 as law enforcement attempted to serve him with an arrest warrant.

Meanwhile, the director clarified he never intended Primetime to be a conventional biopic about Hansen. He said he was more "blown away by the theatricality of how he went about dismantling people's lives."

"He would go in there and he would essentially almost have superhuman abilities that felt mythological," Oppenheim explained to People. "He like could make someone who would desperately want to be anywhere else sit down and listen to him and and essentially have a conversation with him, even though they wanted to get out of there as quick as humanly possible."

Hansen's criticism of Primetime began before the film was released.

During an August 20 interview on Jesse Watters Primetime, he said he went to A24's Manhattan offices for a private screening but left without watching the movie after refusing to sign an agreement he believed could affect his rights to his name, image and brand.

"I didn't see it," he told Fox News' Jesse Watters. "I was supposed to see it at 10 o'clock this morning at A24 offices. The lawyers at A24 wanted me to sign away my rights to my name, image and brand, essentially. As well as any potential legal rights that would come out of the movie."

He said his lawyers had already reviewed the "very restrictive" document, adding, "I've never seen anything quite like it."

However, a source told TheWrap that Hansen was asked to sign a standard nondisclosure agreement a week in advance, as required of all preview audiences. The agreement was reportedly intended to prevent spoilers and protect A24's intellectual property, rather than require the host to relinquish rights to his name, image or brand.

Hansen nevertheless questioned why the studio wanted him to sign the document.

"I don't know. I haven't seen the film. But, if you look at the trailer, obviously it's a very dramatized version," he said. "They had told me that it's fictionalized in many aspects. I know other people have seen it who didn't sign an NDA, and yet they wanted me to sign it."

He stressed he had no involvement in Primetime and no financial stake in the film. He further noted that although he knew the project was in development, he questioned why concerns about his reaction only surfaced after the production was already underway.

"I get a call today saying, 'Well, you know, everybody's concerned. They want you to be happy with the film,'" he said. "Well, then why didn't you tell me about it when you started shooting the film?"

At the time, however, Hansen said he might still "get a chance to see it."

Later that month, Hansen turned his attention to Pattinson's "overly dramatic" portrayal.

"How could they tell the story without having talked to anybody who was directly involved?" he said during an appearance on Dan Abrams's SiriusXM podcast. "The conversations you heard in the trailer never took place in real life."

Hansen then told The Hollywood Reporter the film was an "insult" and a "completely made-up work of fiction."

"I think it's an insult to the thousands of men and women who work hard every day to protect children from predators. They turn something very positive, very challenging, and not without risk into what is essentially a horror film," he said, adding he was not consulted during production.

He offered an even harsher assessment after he finally watched Primetime at a public screening, describing the movie as "bizarre" and "so detached from reality."

"Obviously I'm not objective because the character is, you know, me," he pointed out.