MOVIE NEWS – Robert Pattinson steps into the role of Chris Hansen in A24’s biographical crime thriller Primetime, whose new trailer focuses on the television journalist’s obsession and rapidly expanding ambitions.

Robert Pattinson has once again chosen a role that takes him far away from the conventional Hollywood hero. Primetime dramatizes a defining chapter in the career of famous American television journalist Chris Hansen while examining how a true-crime sting operation can grow into a nationwide entertainment phenomenon.

Chris Hansen’s story gets the A24 treatment

Directed by Lance Oppenheim, the film follows the rise of Hansen’s televised predator stings. Judging by the new trailer, its central figure is not presented simply as a reporter: he becomes increasingly consumed by his program and his growing fame. The story therefore looks beyond the people caught by the operation to the power created in front of the cameras and the moral boundaries that begin to blur around it.

“I’m going to be bigger than Lost.”

That single line captures the tone of the film. Hansen no longer wants merely to inform viewers; he intends to turn the trap he controls into a television machine capable of eclipsing every rival program.

Pattinson takes a risk as both star and producer

Pattinson also serves as a producer on the project. Oppenheim directs from a screenplay by Ajon Singh, while Fred Berger, Lars Knudsen, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Ari Aster and Brighton McCloskey are among the other producers. Phoebe Bridgers, Merritt Wever and Sean Bridgers round out the cast.

The 107-minute Primetime is scheduled to open in US theaters on September 25, 2026. Pattinson has spent recent years moving deliberately between major studio productions and riskier auteur-driven films, and this dark portrait of television clearly belongs to the latter side of his career.

Source: MovieWeb