A24 unveils trailer for Primetime starring Robert Pattinson

A new trailer released on August 6 offers a chilling first look at "Primetime," an upcoming A24 psychological thriller starring Robert Pattinson as controversial television journalist Chris Hansen. The film, set for a world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September and a wide theatrical release on September 25, dramatizes Hansen's meteoric rise while hosting the NBC reality segment "To Catch a Predator" in the mid-2000s.

The full-length trailer depicts Pattinson's Hansen as an intense, obsessive figure driven to elevate his show from a "Dateline NBC" segment to a primetime ratings juggernaut. In one scene, after a network executive moves the program to a 9 p.m. slot, an elated Hansen declares to a producer, played by Merritt Wever, that they will be "bigger than Lost!" The footage also shows the show's mechanics, with actors like Skyler Gisondo hired to pose as minors online to lure men to a sting house, where Hansen would emerge to confront them with his signature line, "Why don't you have a seat right there?"

Directed by documentarian Lance Oppenheim in his narrative feature debut, "Primetime" appears to scrutinize the ethics and personal motives behind...