Robert Pattinson is trading Gotham City and sandworms for basic cable… sort of. In Primetime, A24‘s true crime drama from documentarian Lance Oppenheim, Pattinson plays Chris Hansen, the newsman who became a household name confronting men who showed up at a suburban sting house expecting to meet a minor. The film traces the origin of To Catch a Predator, the Dateline NBC franchise that turned Hansen into an unlikely TV phenomenon in the mid-2000s.
Here’s everything to know about Primetime ahead of its Venice premiere and theatrical release.
The Plot
Set in 2006, Primetime follows Hansen as he sets out to make television history with To Catch a Predator, a hidden camera series built the hosts’s confrontations with adult men who arrived at a decoy house believing they were meeting a minor for sex. The film is described as a biographical crime thriller and marks Oppenheim’s narrative feature directorial debut after acclaimed documentaries including Some Kind of Heaven and HBO’s Ren Faire.
Watch the Teaser
The Cast
Pattinson leads as Hansen and also produces through his Icki Eneo Arlo banner. He’s joined by Merritt Wever (Nurse Jackie, Severance), Skyler Gisondo (Superman), Matthew Maher (Our Flag Means Death), Bokeem Woodbine (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Anna Faris (Scary Movie), Phoebe Bridgers (I Saw the TV Glow), Sean Bridgers (Deadwood), and Jonathan Lipnicki (Jerry Maguire).
Behind the Camera
Oppenheim directs from a script by Ajon Singh, with David Bolen as cinematographer and Daniel Garber editing. Pattinson produces alongside Lars Knudsen, Brighton McCloskey, Tyler Campellone, Fred Berger, and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones. A24 is producing and distributing alongside Range Media Partners and Square Peg.
Venice premiere
Primetime will have its world premiere in main competition at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, running September 2–12, 2026, where it’s in the running for the Golden Lion.
Theatrical release
A24 has set Primetime for a nationwide theatrical release on Sept. 25. No streaming date has been set.
Awards Buzz
Primetime caps a packed year for Pattinson, who also co-starred with Zendaya in A24’s The Drama, appeared in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey in July, and is set to appear in Dune: Part Three in December. Despite acclaimed turns in films like The Lighthouse and The Batman, Pattinson has yet to receive an Oscar nomination — a gap Primetime‘s early awards-season positioning suggests A24 is looking to close.
Gold Derby oddsmakers currently have him among the Top 10 contenders for a Best Actor nomination, currently ranking him at No. 8 ahead of The Social Reckoning‘s Jeremy Strong and Michael‘s Jaafar Jackson.
