Chris Hansen is considering legal action over Robert Pattinson's new movie.
The journalist, 66, revealed he has been exploring his legal options against independent film studio A24 and the filmmakers behind "Primetime," which is inspired by Hansen's time hosting NBC's "To Catch a Predator" segment on "Dateline."
When Dan Abrams asked about potential legal action on the Aug. 26 episode of his SiriusXM podcast, Hansen said, "People are looking at it."
“I don’t know. One guy told me, somebody who’s very, very good at all this and very entrenched in entertainment law, he said, ‘You know, you can do that, and you probably have a decent case. How much time do you want to spend doing it?’" Hansen said. "And is that their thought process here? That if
you if you protest it too much, do they turn it into a promotional situation where this is the movie Chris Hansen doesn't want you to see?"
USA TODAY reached out to Hansen and A24 for comment.
What has Chris Hansen said about 'Primetime'?
Hansen previously said he was not consulted in the making of the film and alleged during an Aug. 20 appearance on "Jesse Watters Primetime" that A24 asked him “to sign away my rights to my name, image and brand, essentially, as well as any potential legal rights that would come out of the movie."
In an Aug. 21 Rolling Stone article, however, a source reportedly told the outlet that Hansen was asked to sign a “standard NDA that all preview audiences must sign to watch an unreleased film in an effort to prevent spoilers and protect the studio’s IP.” Hansen said he was given the opportunity to view "Primetime" early but declined.
While speaking to Abrams, Hansen explained his frustration with the film, which stars Pattinson as a fictional television journalist inspired by Hansen and is based on a 2007 Esquire article “Tonight on Dateline, This Man Will Die," exploring the suicide of a man targeted in one of Hansen's sting operations for allegedly soliciting sex from a minor.
"There are a number of issues here," Hansen said. "One is ethical. If you're going to use somebody's name and the name of their colleagues, the name – potentially – of family members who had nothing to do with this, and you're doing it because you have this dark Hollywood vision of your creativity and you're going to take a real story and flesh it out and make it fiction, then why then do you have to use my real name? I mean, you could have done the same movie without it."
"The reason why they used it is because it has commercial value," Hansen continued. "So, it feels very exploitive to me. It feels sneaky and disingenuous to me that they would do this and not even say, 'This is what we're doing.'"
Hansen's comments came days after The Hollywood Reporter reported that he purchased advertising for his streaming network, TruBlu, to run before every screening of "Primetime." Sources allegedly told the outlet that Hansen wanted to end the ad by stating that "Primetime" was “a Hollywood fantasy version” of what actually happened but decided not to due to concerns about possible backlash from A24.
Hansen told Abrams he has not been in contact with anyone at the company since Aug. 20, when he said “I sent them one last email laying out essentially what I said, and I’ve laid that out before."
"We’ve sent them emails through this process,” Hansen added. “Again, this has been going on since May 27, but why is it that they only approach me the day before the first trailer comes out? That seems odd in and of itself, and I think it’s shocking to anybody who hears the timeline on this thing.”
Contributing: Brendan Morrow
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Chris Hansen weighs legal action over Robert Pattinson's 'Primetime' movie
