Robert Pattinson’s Primetime blends fact with fiction. That’s according to the upcoming crime thriller’s director. The movie dramatizes the production of Chris Hansen’s controversial reality television series To Catch a Predator.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Primetime’s director Lance Oppenheim shed light on why the movie is not entirely faithful to reality. The filmmaker has described his approach to the movie as “docufantasia.”
“I always loved the way To Catch a Predator mixed truth and fiction,” Oppenheim shared. “Creating this apparatus, blending artifice actors with fake decoy houses and props like the sweet tea and the pepperoni pizza, that would then collide with very, very real stakes.”
The filmmaker added, “How do you create something that captures the darkest feelings of humanity mixed with the feeling you would get when you’d hear Chris Hansen say one of his all-time great one-liners?”
Why Chris Hansen was blocked from Robert Pattinson’s Primetime screening
Chris Hansen appeared on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime last month, where he revealed why he could not attend a private screening of Primetime.
“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 explained. “I couldn’t sign that, so they didn’t show me the film. I went all the way over there.”
In another interview on the Serialously With Annie Elise podcast, Hansen stated, “I haven’t seen the film.” He went on to share, “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.”
Meanwhile, director Lance Oppenheim addressed Hansen not having seen the film yet during his recent THR interview. “I’m excited for him to ‘have a seat’ and watch the movie in a movie theater, if that’s where he chooses to watch it,” the filmmaker said. “I hope, when the time comes, that he sees it — and I’m excited to hear what he has to say about it” (via Variety).
Primetime arrives in theaters on September 25.
Originally reported by Namrata Ghosh on ComingSoon.
