The new A24 crime drama also stars Skyler Gisondo and Phoebe Bridgers.

Robert Pattinson stars as Chris Hansen in first trailer for To Catch a Predator film Primetime

The new A24 crime drama also stars Skyler Gisondo and Phoebe Bridgers.

By Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence is a former associate editor at **. He left EW in 2022.

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May 27, 2026 9:00 a.m. ET

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Robert Pattinson; Chris Hansen on 'To Catch a Predator'. Credit:

Daniele Venturelli/WireImage; NBC

- Robert Pattinson stars in the first teaser for *Primetime*.

- The *Batman* actor plays *To Catch a Predator* host Chris Hansen.

- Phoebe Bridgers is set to make her film debut in the A24 project.

Robert Pattinson is ready to make "television history" on the big screen.

After much speculation, the first trailer for A24's *Primetime *confirmed that the* Batman* star is playing journalist Chris Hansen in the crime drama about the lightning-rod program* To Catch a Predator*.

When the Lance Oppenheim–directed film was announced, it was said to be inspired by the 2000s reality series, and paparazzi photos of Pattinson appeared very much like a Hansen portrayal, but Wednesday's tense and moody debut look officially peeled back the curtain.

"What would have happened if I wasn't here," Pattinson can be heard saying. "You see how this looks, right? At the end of the day, a man must be held accountable for the decisions that he makes, would you agree? Do you watch television? Well, there is something you should know. I'm Chris Hansen, with *Dateline NBC*, and you're about to be a part of television history."

Premiering in Nov. 2004,* To Catch a Predator* featured Hansen confronting men who showed up to a house believing they were meeting an underage boy or girl. This was part of a sting operation in which the adults engaged in sexually explicit conversations with actors and members of law enforcement posing as minors. Dozens were arrested via the show.

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*To Catch a Predator* became a bit of a pop culture phenomenon, but then things took a deadly turn shortly before the series was canceled. In 2006, actor Dan Schrack attempted to lure lawyer Bill Conradt to a house in Murphy, Texas via a phone call, but Conradt never arrived. The TV crew and police were then dispatched to and surrounded Conradt's home in Terrell, Tex., and as SWAT entered, he shot himself in the head, dying soon thereafter.

'Primetime' poster.

"They went over there and did that at that house because it would do something for the show, not something for society, not something in the interest of law enforcement," Walt Weiss, a former detective involved in the sting, said in the recent documentary *Predators*. "And the role that I played in it, that's a stain on my soul that I'm gonna live with."

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Opening this fall in theaters, *Primetime* also stars Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, and Phoebe Bridgers, who is making her film debut.

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