Chris Hansen didn’t get to take a seat for the new A24 movie “Primetime.”
The 66-year-old veteran journalist went to the offices of indie distributor A24 to watch the Lance Oppenheim film, in which he is played by Robert Pattinson, before it bows at the Venice Film Festival. He left without seeing it.
The former “To Catch a Predator” host went on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” to say he showed up at the studio’s offices for a 10 a.m. private screening of “Primetime” on Thursday. The Pattinson-led drama is built around Hansen’s run atop the hidden-camera franchise. But Hansen claims he walked away after refusing to sign a legal agreement he describes as unlike anything he has encountered in four decades on the beat.
A source close to A24 said Hansen was asked to sign a standard NDA that all preview audiences must adhere to for an unreleased film — mostly to prevent spoilers and protect the studio’s IP.
“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,” Hansen claimed during the appearance. “I couldn’t sign that, so they didn’t show me the film. I went all the way over there.”
Pressed by Watters on whether he walked in without legal cover, Hansen says his attorneys had already reviewed the paperwork and advised against signing. “Of course not,” he says when asked if he put his name to anything without a lawyer present. “This was a very restrictive agreement. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”
The agreement Hansen describes would be a much larger legal matter, and would not be asked of other individuals screening the film — including press and third-party marketing agencies.
The account marks a sharp turn from where Hansen left things only days earlier. Speaking on the “Serialously With Annie Elise” podcast, he said A24 was setting him up with a private screening “in the next week or so,” after which he would render a verdict on the film and how he felt about the depiction of his career. On Fox News, he said that screening appears to have collapsed at the threshold.
Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen in A24’s “Primetime.”
Courtesy of A24
Hansen says he cannot say what the studio might be worried about, because he still has not watched a minute of the picture. “I haven’t seen the film,” he says. “If you look at the trailer, obviously it’s a very dramatized version. 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.”
In the trailer and other marketing materials for the film, the indie distributor has labeled “Primetime” as “inspired by true events” and has not characterized it as a biopic of Hansen or his life.
The film is written by Ajon Singh, one of Variety’s 10 Screenwriters to Watch from 2025, and is inspired by “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die” by Luke Dittrich.
Hansen is careful to note he is not chasing a payday. “I have no financial stake in this film,” he says, adding that no one from the production paid him or brought him aboard as a consultant. He learned the movie existed, he says, the way he has learned most things across a long career. “I’m just a working reporter, and I’m not learned in the sophisticated ways of Hollywood. But I find stuff out,” Hansen says. “I’ve been an investigative reporter for four decades, so I knew this was going on.”
His frustration, he suggests, is less about the film than the timing of the outreach. “I get a call today saying, ‘Well, you know, everybody’s concerned. They want you to be happy with the film,’” Hansen says. “Well, then why didn’t you tell me about it when you started shooting the film?”
“Primetime” opens in theaters Sept. 25 following its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival. Directed by Oppenheim in his narrative feature debut and written by Ajon Singh, the movie follows Hansen in 2006 as “To Catch a Predator” makes the leap from “Dateline NBC” segment to its own primetime block. Pattinson stars and produces through his Icki Eneo Arlo banner, with a supporting cast that includes Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers and Bokeem Woodbine. Former NBCUniversal chief Jeff Zucker appears as himself.
“To Catch a Predator” ran from 2004 to 2007 as a recurring “Dateline NBC” investigation, pairing Hansen and a camera crew with decoys posing as minors to confront men who arrived at sting houses. The franchise was canceled after a 2006 Texas operation in which Rockwall County assistant district attorney Louis Conradt died by suicide as authorities and the show’s crew closed in on his home.
For now, it looks like Hansen will have to see the movie the way the rest of the country will, with a paid theater ticket. Asked what he would say to Pattinson, he reaches, inevitably, for the line that made him famous. “Take a seat right over there,” Hansen says.
A24 declined to comment.