To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen has a lot to say about Primetime, the upcoming crime thriller about his infamous TV series. Now, the film’s director has snapped back.
Lance Oppenheim directed Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson as Hansen during the rise of his early-2000s predator-trap segment for Dateline. Following Hansen’s complaints about the film, including that he was never consulted about its contents or its casting, Oppenheim used Hansen’s iconic line from the series in response in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter: “Have a seat.”
To Catch a Predator starred Hansen as host of the investigative live TV segment, in which he’d point a camera at adults who pursued sexualized contact with minors while caught in the act. He’d often say the line, “Why don’t you have a seat right there?” right after emerging from a hidden room and exposing the cameras to the accused predator.
The Dateline segment ran from 2004 to early 2008, ending after prompting serious ethical questions and leading to the suicide of a 56-year-old Texas prosecutor who was on camera. NBC was subsequently sued for $105 million.
Hansen suggested that “Hollywood” had a nefarious “motive” in making the dramatized film about the series. He also alleged that he was turned away from a screening because he wouldn’t “sign away my rights to my name, image and brand,” after the film was made without his input. A source told Deadline that the “restrictive agreement” in question was a standard NDA.
Oppenheim replied to Hansen’s complaints in the new interview: “It’s the first time I’ve ever thought I could say this—I’m excited for him to ‘have a seat,’” he quipped. “And watch the movie in a movie theater, if that’s where he chooses to watch it… I hope, when the time comes, that he sees it—and I’m excited to hear what he has to say about it.”
Hansen shared his thoughts on the film’s trailer in an interview on the Serialously podcast last month. Pattinson’s casting was his first issue with the film, which he still hasn’t seen. “I didn’t get to choose my own guy. I always thought—I had discussions years ago, I had crafted a script,” he said, adding that he had hoped comedian Denis Leary would play him in a film.
Pattinson portrays Hansen’s Midwestern accent in the film, as seen in the trailer, which Hansen slammed as “overly dramatic.”
“He’s saying things I never said and doing things I never did,” Hansen said of Pattinson. “I know he’s is a very popular actor, and I know the director is a popular guy. I also have some questions: What’s Hollywood’s motive here?”
Oppenheim was direct about the “motive” in his interview when asked about Hansen’s claim that he was turned away from a screening. “I can’t really speak to that because I wasn’t there when that all happened,” Oppenheim said. “But I know—and I hope he knows—that this film is an exploration of what this kind of work does to the people who make it.”
“It’s based on and inspired by the experiences of working inside an extremely dark world 24/7,” he added, “attempting to do extremely serious journalism, and how that becomes also extremely confusing when you’re tasked with turning it into an entertaining television show.”
