‘To Catch A Predator’ movie angers Chris Hansen…
Chris Hansen made his title as the power and face behind “To Catch a Predator,” the controversial tv show that specialised in having a video crew following law enforcement as they sprung on suspected (and unsuspecting) pedophiles.
Now, with the Sept. 25 release of “Primetime,” the roles are reversed.
Hansen claims the movie, which stars Robert Pattinson as Hansen, is an inaccurate portrayal of his life and work.
Chris Hansen of “To Catch a Predator” fame is the subject of a new movie, “Primetime.” Getty Images
“The reality is, the studio and the director set out to make a completely dark work of fiction,” Hansen, who has seen a trailer but not your entire movie, told The Post in an exclusive interview. “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.”
The trailer depicts Pattinson’s Hansen leaping around with glee over being “bigger than [the hit TV series] ‘Lost,’ ” howling like a monkey and gloating to a stranger on an airplane that what he does is “a little bit worse” than what the stranger describes as wanting to “bleed ’em.”
“Nothing in the trailer ever happened in real life,” claimed Hansen, who now does “Takedown with Chris Hansen,” a “Predator”-style show, via his TruBlu streaming service.
The movie is, in half, based on a 2007 Esquire article Hansen claimed to The Post was “incomplete.”
Entitled “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die,” the article centered on the suicide of Louis Conradt, an assistant district attorney from Texas who killed himself as his filmed arrest was poised to go down on “Predator.”
“Primetime,” out Sept. 25, stars Robert Pattinson as Hansen. A24
Asked how he felt about the tragic end result and whether or not he regretted airing the phase, Hansen said, “No. The segment aired just the way it happened … He’s a grown man … who surfaced in a sting operation, talking to two 13-year-old boys, conducting inappropriately explicit conversations [and] was the target of a police investigation … [he] possessed a handgun and didn’t want to face the consequences.”
Hansen’s show started in 2004 and ran through 2007 as half of “Dateline,” where he was a long-standing, 10-time Emmy-winning correspondent.
Shot with a tense, actuality TV edge, it operated with the cooperation of police departments. At a time when younger people had begun making more and more connections in online chat rooms, “Predator” used decoys who pretended to be minors and attracted grown-ups who wished to prepare inappropriate liaisons.
After seeing the trailer, Hansen believes the filmmakers set out to make a “completely dark work of fiction.” A24
When the pervy adults answered their doorways or rang the bells of supposed teenagers, anticipating youths who have been prepared and prepared to take part in illicit trysts, they have been stunned to instead come face-to-face with Hansen and police officers, who had handcuffs at the prepared.
The segments have been so well-liked that Jeff Zucker, then an NBC bigwig, agreed to make them ongoing. The former TV exec seems as himself in the movie.
“I haven’t talk to Jeff in some time. I learned later that he was going to be in the film and I saw him in the trailer,” Hansen said to Hollywood Reporter of the casting.
Hansen’s “To Catch a Predator” show (above) started in 2004 and ran through 2007 as half of “Dateline,” where he was a long-standing, 10-time Emmy-winning correspondent. MSNBC
In the trailer, Zucker and Pattinson have a scene in which Zucker tells Pattinson, “I don’t really like your show but America loves it.”
Hansen said such a dialog never occurred. “It’s totally fiction.”
Zucker doesn’t disagree. “The scene in which I play myself never happened,” he told Variety.
According to Hansen, the filmmakers behind “Primetime” didn’t seek the advice of with him for the movie. Then, when he thought he could be allowed a sneak peak at the movie, there was a disagreement over an NDA that the movie’s manufacturing company, the ultra-hot A24, wished him to signal.
Hansen labored intently with law officers on the show (above). To Catch a Predator
“I couldn’t sign it in its form,” said Hansen. “There’s a paragraph that indemnified them from any legal action. I couldn’t sign it.”
Hansen said he spent the better half of a day going back and forth with his lawyer and A24’s attorneys without coming to an settlement. As of this writing, he has not seen the movie. “It’s suspicious,” Hansen said. “I’m a live person and they wouldn’t reach out to get any input.”
A24 declined to remark to The Post.
Despite it all, before seeing the trailer, Hansen had every motive to consider that it could be a optimistic viewing expertise. Some of that hope may need been created by an e-mail he acquired from a colleague who reached out on his behalf. “Spoke to Lance [Oppenheim, who directed the movie],” read the textual content. “He said, ‘It’s a love-letter to Chris.’ ”
One of the themes of a Hansen sting was Louis Conradt, an assistant district attorney from Texas who killed himself as his filmed arrest was poised to go down on “Predator.” Rick Harris/ Find a Grave
In a current interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Oppenheim gushed about Hansen.
“I always loved the way ‘To Catch a Predator’ mixed truth and fiction — creating this apparatus, blending artifice actors with fake decoy houses and props like the sweet tea and the pepperoni pizza, that would then collide with very, very real stakes,” Oppenheim told the outlet. “How do you create something that captures the darkest feelings of humanity mixed with the feeling you would get when you’d hear Chris Hansen say one of his all-time great one-liners?”
Despite his disappointment, Hansen plans on seeing the movie “in a theater like everyone else” and says he harbors no in poor health will toward Pattinson.
Shawn Rech, the co-founder of TruBlu, thought-about renting a theater so that his crew might see it, and Hansen might maintain a press convention after the ultimate credit rolled, but then determined against it. “I just don’t need that energy in my life right now,” he said.
Jeff Zucker (left with Hansen) was an NBC bigwig in the period of “Predator” and supported the show. He performs himself in the new movie. Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
Both he and Hansen initially anticipated a very different kind of movie.
“[Hansen] knew for years that somebody was up to something,” Rech said. “We got early word that the script was going to be about a predator kidnapping Chris. It would be a psychological movie, with Chris in some guy’s basement, and having to talk his way out. That sounded like a cool movie. I hoped that’s what they would do.”
That’s not what occurred, but the 2 try to make lemonade with what they’ve been given. In theaters across the nation, a industrial for TruBlu will precede “Primetime.”
“[We’re] to take advantage of the situation as much as we can,” Hansen said.
Meanwhile, he continues doing his sting operations, in cooperation with law enforcement — as opposed to many of the rogue vigilantes he impressed. He’s ready to see the ultimate movie before deciding if he’ll pursue legal motion.
“I can’t rule anything out,” he said.
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