Chris Hansen still hasn’t seen the movie inspired by one of the most famous chapters of his television career, and his attempt to get an early look apparently ended before the projector ever started.
Hansen says he was invited to a screening of Primetime, A24’s upcoming drama starring Robert Pattinson as a fictionalized version of the veteran television journalist. But according to Hansen, the visit hit a legal roadblock when he was presented with an agreement he was unwilling to sign.
Hansen has characterized the proposed agreement as highly restrictive, saying he believed it would affect rights connected to his name, image and brand, along with potential legal claims involving the film. He said his attorneys had reviewed the paperwork and advised him not to agree to it.
Without his signature, Hansen says, there was no screening.
The episode adds another unusual wrinkle to Hansen’s relationship with a movie that draws heavily from a defining period of his career but was made without his participation.
Hansen became a major television figure through To Catch a Predator, the Dateline NBC investigations that used undercover sting operations to confront adults who arrived at locations believing they were meeting minors. The program became both a ratings phenomenon and a source of considerable debate over journalism, law enforcement and the increasingly blurred boundary between investigation and entertainment.
Primetime returns to that world with Pattinson portraying Hansen during the height of the show’s cultural impact. Lance Oppenheim directs the film, which also features Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers, Matthew Maher and Bokeem Woodbine.
Hansen has said he was not involved in the movie’s production and wasn’t consulted while it was being made. That distance has left him in the unusual position of watching Hollywood construct a version of his professional life from the outside.
He has seen the trailers, however, and recognizes that the filmmakers are taking dramatic liberties with the material. Hansen has consequently been cautious about delivering a final judgment on the movie before seeing the finished product.
That opportunity was apparently supposed to come with the private screening. Instead, the disagreement over the proposed legal paperwork sent Hansen home without seeing Pattinson’s interpretation of him.
The situation leaves Primetime with an intriguing real-world subplot ahead of its release. A movie examining the uncomfortable collision of journalism, television and spectacle now has its real-life central figure publicly questioning how Hollywood is handling his story.
For the moment, Hansen’s review will have to wait.
Primetime is scheduled to arrive in theaters September 25.
