A24 film about the controversial Dateline NBC pedophile exposers arrives in theaters next month
Primetime, the upcoming A24 film about the controversial To Catch a Predator starring Robert Pattinson as host Chris Hansen, has shared its first full trailer as well as its release date.
Following the film’s teaser in May — which gave a glimpse of Phoebe Bridgers in her first big-screen role — the new trailer gives a longer look at Primetime, which 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. “It’ll be bigger than Lost!,” Pattinson’s Hansen exclaims after the move.
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, arriving in theaters on September 25, also stars Merritt Wever as a Predator producer, Matthew Maher, Anna Faris, and Bokeem Woodbine, with Bridgers appearing as a member of the show’s Perverted Justice sting team.
To Catch a Predator was also recently the subject of the documentary Predators, which examined how the show became a ratings juggernaut in the mid-2000s, but at a heavy cost: One suspected predator killed himself after law enforcement and the production team approached his home, effectively ending the show.