The internet may have moved on from Lance Oppenheim’s “Primetime” to his hit documentary “You Can See Everything,” but Chris Hansen still wants to have some words about the movie inspired by his work.
The former “To Catch a Predator” host took to social media on Wednesday to invite Robert Pattinson, who portrays Hansen in “Primetime,” onto his podcast for an interview discussion.
Hansen adopted both the verbiage he used when speaking to child predators and the title of his podcast, asking Pattinson to “have a seat” on his show.
“It dawned on me the other day that there’s a guy who has been asked a lot of questions about me, and I’ve been asked a lot of questions regarding him,” Hansen said to open the video. “That guy is Robert Pattinson. Of course, you know he’s the actor who portrays me — or a character with my name, image and likeness — in the movie ‘Primetime.’ And I thought, wouldn’t it be great if Robert Pattinson would have a seat with me and talk about all of this?”
“Primetime” is a fictionalized take on Hansen’s early career and the days of “To Catch a Predator’s” emergence on the television scene. Though the film takes great liberties in portraying the story as a thriller with strong horror and comic elements, it’s based on Luke Dittrich’s Esquire article “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die,” which tells the true story of a man who died by suicide during a “To Catch a Predator” operation.
Hansen has made a lot of noise about the movie over the past few months, at one point saying, “Maybe we should look at Lance Oppenheim’s transcripts,” after making a connection between Hollywood and sexual predator Harvey Weinstein. (In “To Catch a Predator,” Hansen produces transcripts of chat logs detailing predators’ sexual comments towards minors.)
But that hasn’t stopped Hansen from wanting to talk to Pattinson himself. Though Hansen said, “I know he’s a busy guy. I know I’m a busy guy,” he quickly offered to fly to London to make the chat happen, working around the actor’s schedule filming “The Batman: Part II.”
“I just think it would be engaging,” Hansen said. “I think people would find it interesting. Again, open invitation. Any time, Robert. Join me.”
