The former To Catch a Predator host and the studio behind Primetime offer conflicting accounts of why he never watched the Robert Pattinson film.
Chris Hansen, the longtime host of To Catch a Predator, says he was turned away from a private screening of A24's Primetime after refusing to sign paperwork he believes would have required him to surrender rights tied to his name, image and brand. Hansen has said he arrived at A24's New York offices on Aug. 20 or Aug. 21, 2026, for a 10 a.m. screening of the film, which stars Robert Pattinson as a character modeled on Hansen's television persona. He first laid out his version of events on Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime, telling the audience that lawyers for his own legal team advised him against signing the document A24 presented.
A24, through unnamed sources cited by TMZ and Variety, disputes that characterization. Those sources say Hansen was not asked to give up his life rights but was instead presented with a routine nondisclosure agreement, the kind commonly required of anyone attending a prerelease screening of an unfinished or unreleased film. According to this account, the document exists mainly to prevent spoilers and to protect the studio's intellectual property ahead of the movie's public debut, not to strip Hansen of any personal or legal claims.
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Competing Accounts of What the Document Required
Hansen's description of the agreement goes further than a typical confidentiality clause. He has said the paperwork would have required him to relinquish rights to his name, image and brand, and he has suggested it could have also affected his ability to pursue future legal claims connected to the film. In his telling, accepting those terms was not something he or his attorneys were willing to do, so he left the building without seeing Primetime.
A24's side of the story, relayed through sources rather than an on-the-record studio statement, frames the document differently. TMZ reported that the agreement was sent to Hansen roughly a week before the scheduled screening, giving him and his attorney time to review it and propose changes. According to that report, Hansen did not return the document with edits and instead expected to be let into the screening without signing anything, a scenario TMZ described as Hansen expecting to simply "waltz in."
The Disputed Clause 5 Language
The disagreement escalated when Hansen shared a portion of the alleged NDA with TMZ. The outlet quoted language it identified as Clause 5, which it reported would release A24 and its affiliates from claims "arising out of or in connection with the project, including recipient's screening of the project." Hansen pointed to that wording as evidence the studio was attempting to overreach, telling TMZ he believed A24 was trying to "pull a fast one" on him.
A24's response, again conveyed through sources to TMZ and Variety, maintained that the excerpt reflects standard screening paperwork rather than an attempt to take away Hansen's personal rights. No A24 executive has been quoted on the record in the available reporting, and the studio's position throughout the dispute has come exclusively through unnamed sources. The full text of the agreement has not been made public, leaving only the excerpt Hansen provided available for outside review.
Primetime's Premiere and the Broader Reputational Dispute
Primetime is a fictionalized drama drawing on Hansen's To Catch a Predator notoriety, with Robert Pattinson playing the Hansen-inspired lead. Variety reported that the film is set to premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival and is scheduled to open in U.S. theaters on Sept. 25. A24 released a trailer for the film in early August, a rollout that TMZ's earlier reporting tied directly to the growing public friction with Hansen.
Beyond the paperwork dispute, Hansen has framed his complaint as partly reputational. He has suggested that because the film draws so closely on his life and career, he should have been consulted or compensated during its production. He has also acknowledged in earlier comments that he had not yet seen the film and found it difficult to fully assess how he is portrayed until he does.
Where the Facts Stand and What Remains Unconfirmed
Multiple outlets, including TMZ, Variety, Rolling Stone, The A.V. Club, The Express Tribune and Outlook India, have covered the dispute and largely agree on its core outline. Hansen was invited to a prerelease screening, he did not end up watching Primetime, and the reason was his refusal to sign the paperwork presented to him at A24's offices.
What remains contested is the nature of that paperwork. Hansen insists it went beyond a standard confidentiality agreement and threatened his rights to his own name and likeness. A24's sources insist it was nothing more than the routine NDA required of preview audiences. With the full document still unreleased and no on-the-record studio statement available, the dispute remains a disagreement over access terms rather than a confirmed case of rights being stripped away.
