“It is an insult … I am disappointed”: Chris Hansen says “To Catch a Predator” movie is an inaccurate portrayal of work

Chris Hansen, who built his name fronting To Catch a Predator, has spoken out against Primetime, a Hollywood film starring Robert Pattinson as Hansen, due for release on 25th September. The original show made its mark following law enforcement as they confronted suspected pedophiles on camera, and that legacy is something Hansen feels the film has badly misrepresented.

As per a report shared by The New York Post, Hansen has watched the trailer, though not the full film.

"The reality is, the studio and the director set out to make a completely dark work of fiction. It is an insult ... I am disappointed that a Hollywood studio would take something that has accomplished so much good and twist it into something that's evil and overly dramatic," he shared.

Hansen didn't stop there. He flatly rejected the trailer's version of events, adding that nothing in it ever happened in real life. The sixty-six-year-old currently runs Takedown with Chris Hansen, a predator-focused series on his TruBlu streaming service.

Chris Hansen stands by airing Louis Conradt segment despite tragic outcome:

Hansen has also taken issue with part of what the film is drawing from. As per a report shared by The New York Post, Primetime is based in part on a 2007 Esquire article that he described to The Post as "incomplete," a piece centered on Louis Conradt, a Texas assistant district attorney who took his own life as cameras were closing in to film his arrest for the show. Hansen was asked whether he had any regrets about airing it.

"No. The segment aired just the way it happened ... He's a grown man ... who surfaced in a sting operation, talking to two thirteen-year-old boys, conducting sexually explicit conversations, was the target of a police investigation ... possessed a handgun and didn't want to face the consequences," Hansen explained.

To Catch a Predator ran from 2004 through 2007 as part of Dateline, where Hansen was a correspondent for years, racking up ten Emmy wins during that stretch. Shot with a raw reality television feel, the show worked hand in hand with local police departments throughout its run.

Robert Pattinson shares why he believes Chris Hansen was the secret ingredient behind To Catch a Predator:

As per a report shared by Variety, Robert Pattinson spoke at a press conference and made clear he's genuinely hopeful Chris Hansen comes around once he watches it.

"Obviously, I hope he likes the movie. There's something electrifying about him. I would hope the amount of inspiration his character has given a lot of people for years is some kind of compliment," shared Pattinson.

Pattinson also revealed he watched To Catch a Predator growing up, though he admits he didn't think much of it at the time. That changed after preparing for the role.

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"There's something magnetic about his presence. I watched the show when I was younger and didn't think about it. There's a strange alchemy — something he's doing is the reason people are still talking about that show twenty years later. It's not to do solely with the subject matter," explained Pattinson.

It was something about the show that was groundbreaking, but then he's someone centering it. There's something, even after watching literally thousands of hours of it, you can't put your finger on it," added Pattinson.

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