In the show, an advocacy group with adult decoys posing as children would chat with online predators in order to lure them to a house, ostensibly to have sex with a minor. But instead of their prey, they would be met by host Chris Hansen (played by Robert Pattinson), who would interrogate the predators about why they were pursuing illicit and illegal affairs. The suspects were then arrested by law enforcement waiting outside the house.
The film is based more specifically on the 2009 Esquire article “Tonight on ‘Dateline’ This Man Will Die,” which chronicled an episode of the show involving Louis William Conradt Jr., an assistant district attorney in Murphy, Texas, who died by suicide after being caught in a police sting conducted in coordination with the “Predator” team. Hansen is continuing his work on his media platform, TruBlu, which hosts shows such as the spiritual successor to “Predator,” “Takedown With Chris Hansen,” which launched in 2022. Variety spoke with Hansen a few days after he watched “Primetime.” He discussed his perspective on its box office success, which parts are most upsetting to his former colleagues and what legal action he might take against A24.
The only elements of the movie that are not fictionalized are the fact that he uses my name and two or three catchphrases. Everything else is fictionalized. Yes, there was an assistant DA who tragically took his own life, but the circumstances surrounding it, the timeline, the events, it may be based on reality, but none of it is truthful.
It’s a complete work of fiction. Look, nobody wants to see somebody take their own life. But in this case, you had a public official, an assistant district attorney who prosecuted criminal cases, who, according to the police and evidence gathered in the case, conducted sexually explicit conversations with decoys posing as two different teenage boys.
In Texas, like many other states, that constitutes a felony. Now, he didn’t show up at the house, but the police made a decision to get a warrant based on probable cause. And I think if you were to talk to the police making those decisions, they would tell you that there was some concern that evidence might be destroyed and that they were going to go serve that arrest warrant at his home.
Now, obviously, we knew they were gonna do this, and we captured the action from the street. And when they went in, according to Murphy police, he had a gun in his hand. He said, “I’m not going to hurt you guys,” and took his own life.
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