A24 released the first full trailer for Primetime on August 6, giving the drama its clearest look yet and putting Robert Pattinson’s turn as Chris Hansen front and center. The film, which Pattinson also produces, is now moving into view ahead of its world premiere in competition at the Venice International Film Festival and a September 25 theatrical release.
That date matters because the teaser in May only hinted at the project’s tone. This trailer makes the film’s pitch much more direct, showing Pattinson as the Dateline NBC host who led To Catch a Predator, the true-crime program built around law enforcement stings and decoys posing as minors online. Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo and Phoebe Bridgers also appear in the cast, but the trailer is built around Pattinson’s Hansen and the uneasy fame that followed the show.
Primetime comes from director Lance Oppenheim and writer Ajon Singh, and it is being produced by Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Fred Berger, Pattinson, Brighton McCloskey, Lars Knudsen and Tyler Campellone. A24 had already released a teaser in May, but the August 6 trailer is the first full-length preview, which is why it is the version likely to shape the film’s early public identity.
That identity is still not fully settled. Primetime chronicles the origins of To Catch a Predator, yet the trailer does not pin down whether the film will celebrate Hansen’s role, question the ethics of the program, or try to do both at once. The earlier teaser used split-screen imagery and Hansen’s own words about accountability and television history, a framing that suggested scrutiny as much as nostalgia, and that ambiguity remains in place here.
What is clear is the rollout. Primetime is headed for Venice first, then to theaters only on September 25. For Pattinson, the trailer does more than confirm another high-profile role; it positions him as the face of a film about one of television’s most uncomfortable true-crime legacies, and leaves the sharper judgment for the movie itself.
