Chris Hansen criticizes Primetime movie
The filmmaker behind the new Primetime movie called it a love letter to Chris Hansen, but Hansen rejects that description entirely and jokes he would hate receiving a poison pen letter from this director instead. After viewing trailers and speaking with reviewers who saw the full cut, Hansen describes the project as a fever dream detached from reality, far too over the top to even comprehend what they are trying to achieve here. He argues the film acts as a hit piece against him and his series, insulting the thousands of men and women working daily in Takedown and To Catch a Predator to expose bad human beings who try to hurt children. Hansen notes nobody contacted him regarding the use of his name, image, or likeness, which feels strange given how compelling the story is in real life. Robert Pattinson portrays him as overly dramatic and drawn out, making Hansen look like a character in a horror film having a mental breakdown with green hues on his face. Specific scenes involving Stone Phillips are deemed ridiculous because they never happened, and interactions with Jeff Zucker during the investigation period also never occurred. Although Jeff Zucker plays himself in the movie, the conversation between the real Zucker and Pattinson playing Hansen never took place, despite Hansen having a great relationship with Zucker when he was his first executive producer at NBC. The film inaccurately suggests the show was ratings-obsessed and struggling for prime time slots, when it was always part of Dateline conceived to cover online child predators. Hansen points out that seventeen suspects appeared at the decoy house within the first two and a half days, proving the show's success without any battle for time slots. His primary objection remains the depiction of him as an aloof and detached father to his sons, a portrayal he calls mean-spirited and untrue. He argues the film offers no entertainment, literary value, or societal benefit, claiming the filmmakers simply didn't want to hear that Chris Hansen is a good guy or that this work is important.
Transcript (en)
I have seen the trailers for the film. I have talked to movie reviewers who saw the entire film. So I had a pretty good idea of what was in it. And what was in it, in my mind, was something that was so overly dramatized, so detached from reality, as the director put it, a fever dream, that almost hit me as something that was so far from reality that it wouldn't even bother me. And I think other filmgoers will experience the same thing. You know, in a way, it's a hit piece on me and the series, which is weird because all we do is expose bad human beings who try to hurt children. So in that respect, it's sort of an insult to the thousands of men and women who go out every day to do the same thing that I try to do in Takedown and did in To Catch a Predator. But I think it's so far over the top that it's hard to come to grips with what they're trying to do here. Why do you think they did that? I think and it interesting because a colleague of mine knew Lance Alpenheim and reached out earlier this year and said hey what going on with this film You know and I asked him to reach out because nobody said anything to me about this And you would think that if they going to use your name image and likeness they would reach out and say, hey, help us put this story together. It's pretty compelling. It's pretty dramatic as it is in real life. So he reaches out. Lance Oppenheim gets back and he says something to the effect of, it's a love letter to Chris Hansen. And it gets a little weird in the storytelling. well it sure got weird and if that's a love letter i'd hate to get a poison pen letter from this director how do you think pattinson portrayed you i think it's overly dramatic drawn out they make him look like a character in a horror film there's all kinds of green hue on his face he's obviously having a mental breakdown uh the scenes of him dealing with you know stone phillips for instance ridiculous never happened the scenes of him dealing with jeff zucker the head of nbc at sometimes during this investigation period uh never happened zucker plays himself by the way yeah in the movie but the conversation that the real Jeff Zucker being portrayed by Jeff Zucker has with Robert Pattinson playing Chris Hansen never happened Never happened. Now, I had a great relationship with Jeff Zucker. He was my first executive producer at NBC, and we had a cordial relationship all the way through. And I saw him about as much as any correspondent would see the president of their network. but always fine, but never, ever were the words spoken in real life that were spoken in the movie. They make you out to be ratings obsessed. Yeah. That this was all about numbers. Right. Obviously you cared about numbers. I care about numbers, yeah, but not to this point. They made it look like this was a show that was kind of hovering in obscurity, and it was about getting on a prime time. The show was always on prime time. The show was conceived to be a story about child predators going after children online for Dateline. And I had pitched the story and we had figured out we could use this online watchdog group as decoys and we could wire a house. And we'd see what happens. Well, 17 guys showed up in the first two and a half days. So it continued from there. But there was never any battle for time slots or anything It was just a part of Dateline And it was always a part of my overall reporting duties I mean I never stopped doing other stories just for to catch a predator. It was just part of my repertoire. In all honesty, what bothered me most was it portrayed me as an aloof, detached father to my sons, which is so far from reality. And for them to do that really is just a cheap shot with no entertainment, literary, or benefit to any viewer or society. It's just mean-spirited, untrue, and unworthy of the viewer's time. And they didn't want to hear that Chris Hansen's a good guy. They didn't want to hear that this work is important. This director had a dark image of what he wanted to do he wanted to create a horror-like film with interesting photography and and didn't want to hear anything else didn't want to have his mind polluted by anything positive that this actually achieved over the last 22 years i bet it changed the way you look at hollywood it does
