Robert Pattinson Takes On Controversial Role In Primetime At Venice Premiere
The film satirizes NBC’s ratings push and Chris Hansen’s growing delusion as the show moves from Dateline to primetime against Lost.
- On Friday, September 25, A24 will release 'Primetime,' starring Robert Pattinson as Dateline NBC host Chris Hansen. The film examines the controversial sting-operation series and its legacy of performative justice.
- The original series, which aired from 2004 to 2007, utilized sting operations targeting alleged sex offenders. While promoted as public service, critics questioned the show's methodology and blurred boundaries between journalism and vigilante entrapment.
- Director Lance Oppenheim portrays Hansen as obsessively competing against ABC's Lost for ratings dominance. Critics compare Pattinson's monomaniacal performance to Jake Gyllenhaal's role in Nightcrawler, calling it 'the most locked-in performance of its kind.'
- Filmmakers include the on-camera suicide of Rockwall County, Texas, assistant district attorney Bill Conradt, an incident many attribute to the show's cancelation. Hansen maintains the program simply ran its natural course.
- Despite the film's critique, Hansen continues sting operations today through his TruBlu streaming service. 'Primetime' examines how media and justice have become uneasy partners in 21st-century entertainment.
19 Articles
19 Articles
Director Lance Oppenheim directs the actor of the moment in the role of Chris Hansen, conductor of the reality show in which young aspiring actors are used as baits to capture, live, under the eyes of viewers, paedophiles in search of adventures
Venice, Pattinson "You can convince yourself of something and then turn it into a weapon"
The highly anticipated competition film »Primetime« in Venice is a media-critical tragedy comedy with Robert Pattinson – and unfortunately proves to be a gross disappointment.
On Saturday afternoon, the Lido welcomed the ex-star of "Twilight" in Lance Oppenheim's first film, produced by A24. ...
In the theater on September 23rd in France, the film is also its first as a producer, as well as the first fiction feature film by American director Lance Oppenheim. "I was extremely attached to this project from the beginning and attached to all the people involved in it," said the 40-year-old actor at a press conference held in Venice prior to the screening of the film. "Primetime" is inspired by the television program "To Catch a Predator" br…
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