A24 dropped their first trailer for Primetime, in which Robert Pattinson plays investigative journalist Chris Hansen to tell the origin story of Dateline‘s series, To Catch A Predator.
The logline for Primetime reads, “In 2006, ‘To Catch a Predator’ host Chris Hansen sets out to make television history.” Robert Pattinson plays the “journalist who takes on an underworld of crime and changes television forever.”
The 40-year-old Twilight actor drastically changed his voice to embody Chris Hansen, who gained fame for hosting Dateline’s To Catch a Predator. The show, which ran from 2004 to 2007, chronicled Hansen’s efforts to out suspected child predators, with the help of law enforcement and a team of decoys pretending to be minors online.
Robert Pattinson (as Hansen) says in a voice-over in the trailer, “What would have happened if I wasn’t here? You see how this looks, right?” He continues, “At the end of the day, men must be held accountable for the decisions that he makes, do you agree?” This dialogue will ring familiar to anyone who’s seen To Catch a Predator as these were the questions Hansen would prod his subjects with after catching them on camera, with ‘kids’ they met online.
The dark trailer shows footage of potential Internet predators getting caught on video. “Do you watch television?” the voice-over continues. “Well there’s something you should know. I’m Chris Hansen with ‘Dateline NBC,’ and you’re about to be a part of television history.”
“Primetime,” directed by Lance Oppenheim, is set to hit theaters on Sept. 11. The film also stars Anna Faris, Phoebe Bridgers, Merritt Wever, and Skyler Gisondo.
For those who missed this era of television, “To Catch a Predator” has been controversial since its debut.
The series featured Hansen’s team posing as underage boys and girls on the Internet. Then, they ambushed the adult men in a sting operation after getting them to try to meet up with the minors they were posing as.
Chris Hansen would then confront the men with embarrassing evidence of the chats. Oftentimes, the men would later be arrested by police, who were waiting outside for them.
Critics questioned the vigilante approach of the show, especially after Texas assistant district attorney Bill Conradt committed suicide in 2006 when “Dateline” cameras and police surrounded his house to arrest him. NBC later settled a lawsuit brought on by Conradt’s sister in 2008.
In 2015, the journalist defended the series in an interview with Time. “I think we raised awareness and created a dialogue that didn’t exist before. We created compelling television, and I think we exposed a lot of bad people who were preying on children.” Chris Hansen reasoned, “If the old-guard journalists have a problem with that, then so be it.”
