A24 has released the trailer for “Primetime,” giving a first look at Robert Pattinson as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen.
The drama-thriller centers on Hansen’s obsessive pursuit to catch “a whale” after To Catch a Predator makes the jump from Dateline NBC segment to its own popular block on primetime TV. The official logline reads, “In 2006, ‘To Catch a Predator’ host Chris Hansen sets out to make television history.” He is helped by Phoebe Bridgers, in her acting debut, as Hansen’s right-hand woman.
Skyler Gisondo plays an actor cast in the role of a pretend teenage boy used to lure men off the internet and into the sting operation. “What you’re doing is more than acting. You’re cleansing the world of an ancient evil,” Pattinson’s Hansen tells Gisondo in the trailer.
The Lance Oppenheim-directed Primetime also stars Merritt Wever as a Predator producer, Matthew Maher, Anna Faris, and Bokeem Woodbine.
“To Catch a Predator” ran from 2004 to 2007 as a periodic special investigative report and primetime segment on Dateline NBC. The show followed undercover sting operations across the United States.
In November 2006, Rockwall County assistant district attorney Bill Conradt killed himself as Texas police and the “To Catch a Predator” team entered his home with search and arrest warrants. Conradt had chatted with the show’s fake “child” actor, but did not travel to meet up. After the controversial incident, “To Catch a Predator” was canceled in 2008, following an investigation by ABC’s “20/20” and a lawsuit filed by Conradt’s sister. In its time on air, the show was massively popular, and the 2025 documentary “Predators” unpacked viewers’ fascination with the series and Conradt’s suicide.
“Primetime” will be theatrically distributed by A24 September 25th.
