Robert Pattinson can’t stop showing up in movies this year.
Photo: A24
There is probably no one in the industry having a better, freakier, more fun year than Robert Pattinson, who gets to play an amped-up weirdo in not one but four movies. The third iteration of Pattinson’s keyed-up kook can be see in the first trailer for A24’s Primetime, the feature film debut from Lance Oppenheim, best known for his documentary work like Some Kind of Heaven and Ren Faire. Unlike, say, The Drama or The Odyssey or Dune: Part 3 where Pattinson is playing a fictional maniac (okay, maybe Antinous was real, but that’s for Homer to decide), Primetime sees him playing none other than Dateline NBC’s Chris Hansen, the host of To Catch a Predator.
You want another weird Robert Pattinson voice? You want to see his forehead vein bulging? You want to see him sporting a haircut that’s not flattering but definitely compelling? Welcome to Primetime. To Catch a Predator arranged sting operations across the country, baiting adult men into homes filled with hidden cameras after they had conversations online with adults who posed as minors (here, it seems, being played by Skyler Gisondo and singer Phoebe Bridgers in her purple bob). Pattinson’s Hansen is aided and abetted by a producer played by Merritt Wever, eager to help him catch a whale in a sea of what he calls “bottom feeders.” The sordid, stressful nature of Hansen’s show — which may or may not have violated entrapment laws — has been a subject of recent fascination, including David Osit’s Sundance documentary Predators, which featured an interview with Hansen reflecting back on his position. Pattinson’s take on Hansen is that of media-minded megalomania: a man who will stop at nothing to be “bigger than Lost.” Primetime will premiere at the Venice Film Festival later this month before it’s out in theaters on September 25.
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