Chris Hansen says he hasn't ruled out suing A24 over 'Primetime'

Chris Hansen, the broadcaster who became a fixture of early-2000s television as the host of NBC's "To Catch a Predator," said in an interview published Thursday that he has not ruled out legal action against A24 over "Primetime," the studio's dramatized film about his career, calling the movie "a complete work of fiction" built around his real name and public persona.

The comments, made to Variety a few days after Hansen watched the film, mark his most pointed public statement yet since "Primetime" opened in theaters on Sept. 25. The film, directed by Lance Oppenheim and starring Robert Pattinson as a character modeled on Hansen, dramatizes the "Dateline NBC" segment that ran from 2004 to 2007, in which decoys posing as minors lured men to a house where Hansen confronted them on camera before police made arrests.

What Hansen said

Hansen told Variety that aside from the use of his name and a handful of catchphrases, "everything else is fictionalized," including the circumstances surrounding the 2006 death by suicide of Louis William Conradt Jr., a Texas assistant district attorney who took his own life as police attempted to serve an arrest warrant stemming from a "To Catch a Predator" investigation. "It may be based on reality, but none of it is truthful. It's a complete work of fiction," he said.

Asked directly whether legal action remains on the table, Hansen said he has retained lawyers who have reviewed the matter. "There are lawyers looking at it, and I think some of them are itchy to make a statement and challenge some things here, but there's no rush to do that," he said. "I'll have some meetings in the near term, and we'll discuss it."

"I've spent 45 years creating a very valuable brand, and they wanted to exploit it. They know that if they use the name 'Chris Hansen,' people will come to the movie... I'm not objective, because they exploited me and my brand and my name, image for commercial enterprise. But a lot of people don't think that's fair. A lot of people think that's identity theft in one way or another."

The numbers

"Primetime" opened to $19.2 million from 2,863 North American theaters over its first weekend, according to box-office data compiled by The Numbers, making it one of A24's strongest theatrical debuts since the studio's founding in 2012. The film holds an 87 percent approval rating among critics on aggregator sites tracking reviews since its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 5, where it screened in competition under the official title "Primetime," per the festival's published program.

• Opening weekend: $19.2 million domestic
• Theater count: 2,863 North American venues
• World premiere: Venice Film Festival, Sept. 5, 2026
• Wide theatrical release: Sept. 25, 2026

Background: a monthslong dispute

The friction between Hansen and A24 predates the film's release. Hansen has said previously that when he was invited to a private screening at A24's Manhattan offices in August, lawyers for the studio asked him to sign a nondisclosure agreement that he said would have required him to "sign away my rights to my name, image and, you know, brand essentially, as well as any potential legal rights that would come out of the movie." He declined to sign and left without seeing the film. A source close to the production has described the document as the standard confidentiality agreement given to all preview audiences for unreleased films, not a waiver of legal rights.

Hansen eventually watched "Primetime" anonymously, seated in the back row of a packed Times Square theater, according to his own account. He has since continued to publicly dispute the film's portrayal of his motives and conduct during the original investigations, which ran as segments of "Dateline" beginning in 2004.

Who's affected

Hansen said in the Variety interview that former colleagues from the "To Catch a Predator" era have reached out to him privately, expressing frustration at how they are depicted in the film. He singled out a former segment producer whom he said NBC's press office has not permitted to comment publicly. "She's understandably upset because of the way she's portrayed and the way I was portrayed," Hansen said. "I've never yelled at a colleague ever."

NBC did not directly address that claim when contacted by Variety. A network spokesperson instead provided a statement about the film itself: "The movie is a fictionalized portrayal of events from nearly two decades ago that were extensively reported at the time. Over its nearly 35-year history, 'Dateline' has significantly evolved along with the television landscape."

What happens next

Hansen said he has deliberately avoided rushing into any legal filing, in part because he believes A24 could use a lawsuit as free publicity for the film. "I certainly wouldn't have done it prior to the film, because I think part of their reasoning behind the way they've handled this was to try to get me to be upset and try to do something, and then it becomes 'The movie Chris Hansen doesn't want you to see!'" he said. He added that any legal theory would likely need to go beyond a conventional defamation claim, which is difficult for a public figure to win, and could instead explore right-of-publicity or identity-related claims.

In the meantime, Hansen said he has purchased advertising that runs in theaters ahead of "Primetime" screenings nationwide, promoting TruBlu, the media platform he founded after leaving NBC, which hosts "Takedown With Chris Hansen," a current-affairs successor to "To Catch a Predator." Neither A24 nor representatives for Oppenheim or Pattinson had issued a public response to Hansen's latest comments as of Thursday evening.