Chris Hansen Is Considering Legal Action Against Robert Pattinson’s “Primetime:” ‘Feels Sneaky and Disingenuous’

Tommy McArdleFri, August 28, 2026 at 3:44 PM UTC

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Chris Hansen on Dec. 7, 2016; Robert Pattinson in 2026’s ‘Primetime’Credit: Noam Galai/WireImage; A24 -

Chris Hansen suggested that he is weighing his legal options regarding Robert Pattinson’s new movie Primetime during an interview on Aug. 26

Hansen has stated in recent weeks that he was not consulted on the movie and declined an opportunity to screen it early after he said distributor A24 asked him “to sign away my rights to my name, image and brand, essentially,” which a source reportedly denied

Primetime, which is partially based on events that took place while Hansen hosted the Dateline NBC series To Catch a Predator, is in theaters Sept. 25

Chris Hansen might take legal action against A24 and the filmmakers behind Robert Pattinson‘s new movie, which is based on To Catch a Predator.Hansen, 66, suggested he’s considering his options regarding the new movie Primetime when asked if he could take legal action during a Wednesday, Aug. 26 appearance on Dan Abrams’ SiriusXM podcast.

“People are looking at it, Dan,” the former Dateline NBC correspondent told Abrams, himself a former broadcast journalist. “I don’t know. One guy told me, somebody who’s very, very good at all this and very entrenched in entertainment law, he said, ‘You know, you can do that, and you probably have a decent case. How much time do you want to spend doing it?’ ”

Pattinson, 40, stars as Hansen in Primetime, a movie partially based on a 2007 Esquire article titled “Tonight on Dateline, This Man Will Die” and dramatized from Hansen’s time hosting the Dateline NBC segment between 2004 and 2007. In recent weeks, Hansen has said that he was not consulted on the movie.

He also said that he declined an opportunity to view the film early through its distributor, A24, after the company asked him “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” during an Aug. 20 appearance on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime.

A source close to the film told Rolling Stone that Hansen was actually asked to sign a “standard NDA that all preview audiences must sign to watch an unreleased film in an effort to prevent spoilers and protect the studio’s IP.”

Per the insider, Hansen was not asked to “sign away” any rights. After allegedly refusing to sign, he did not view the film.

On Abrams’ podcast, Hansen wondered aloud whether raising his own objections to the film — which he said he still has not seen — will “turn it into a promotional situation where, ‘this is the movie Chris Hansen doesn’t want you to see.’ ”

“Well, in reality, it’s the movie Chris Hansen hasn’t even seen yet, so it’s a hard question to answer,” he said. “If it’s that objectionable — I just think that there are a number of issues here. One is ethical. If you’re going to use somebody’s name and the name of their colleagues and the name, potentially, of family members who have nothing to do with this and you’re doing it because you have this dark Hollywood vision of your creativity and you’re going to take a real story and flesh it out and make it fiction — why, then, do you have to use my real name?”

“You could have done the same movie without it, and the reason why they used it is because it has commercial value. So it feels very exploitative to me,” Hansen added. “It feels sneaky and disingenuous to me that they would do this and not even say ‘This is what we’re doing.’”

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Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen in ‘Primetime’Credit: A24

On Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Hansen purchased advertising space on every screen showing the movie to promote his streaming network, TruBlu, where he conducts similar investigations to the ones seen in To Catch a Predator. According to that outlet, which cited anonymous sources, the commercial sees Hansen encourage audience members to try out the streaming service.

He also allegedly wanted to state that the events depicted in Primetime are “a Hollywood fantasy version” of real-life events. Per THR, the line was removed due to concern about potential backlash from A24.

In Hansen’s interview with Abrams, he stated that he has not communicated with anyone at A24 since Aug. 20.

“I sent them one last email laying out essentially what I said, and I’ve laid that out before, and we’ve sent them emails through this process,” Hansen said. “Again, this has been going on since May 27, but why is it that they only approach me the day before the first trailer comes out? That seems odd in and of itself, and I think it’s shocking to anybody who hears the timeline on this thing.”

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Poster for Robert Pattinson’s ‘Primetime’Credit: A24

Trailers for Primetime appear to show Pattinson, 40, in character as Hansen as he prepares to confront an alleged sexual predator portrayed by Skyler Gisondo.

“In 2006, To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen sets out to make television history,” reads an official synopsis for the film. To Catch a Predator itself was canceled in 2008; in the last two decades, Hansen has produced spiritual successors to the series, including the news magazine Crime Watch Daily and his currently running Takedown with Chris Hansen on TruBlu.

Pattinson’s new movie also costars Merritt Wever, Matthew Maher, Bokeem Woodbine and singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers in her debut film acting performance. Primetime makes its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 5 and releases in theaters Sept. 25.

PEOPLE reached out to Hansen and A24 for comment, but did not hear back at the time of publishing.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”