A24’s Primetime dramatizes Chris Hansen and a TV controversy

A24’s Primetime, a fictionalized drama starring Robert Pattinson as television journalist Chris Hansen, is scheduled to open in U.S. theaters on September 25, 2026. The film draws on the history of NBC’s To Catch a Predator and controversies surrounding a 2006 Texas operation, but it is not a documentary or a scene-by-scene account of the events. Directed by Lance Oppenheim and written by Ajon Singh, the movie is set in 2006 and follows Hansen as he seeks to make the sting-based television program a bigger event. Merritt Wever plays a fictionalized producer, and Skyler Gisondo plays Decoy Dan, a character described as an amalgamation of adults who acted as decoys on the original show. The film also features Phoebe Bridgers, Matthew Maher and Bokeem Woodbine. The real program, which began as a Dateline NBC segment, showed Hansen confronting men who had allegedly arranged to meet minors. The operations involved online decoys and locations set up for the televised encounters, with police waiting outside in some cases. The show grew into a television phenomenon, while its methods and relationship with law enforcement drew scrutiny.