Watch Robert Pattinson Transform Into Chris Hansen in A24’s Chilling “Primetime” Trailer

Robert Pattinson is one of his generation’s most reliably electric performers. Whether he’s playing the cutthroat, cowardly suitor Antinous in Christopher Nolan’s epic The Odyssey, the beleaguered groom opposite Zendaya’s bride in Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama, or the cheating, overmatched husband opposite Jennifer Lawrence in Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love, Pattinson never repeats himself. (He’s such an excellent shape-shifter that he’s playing a literal one in Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming Dune: Part Three.)

In the first trailer for A24’s Primetime, Pattinson plays To Catch A Predator host Chris Hansen. The film, directed by Lance Oppenheim and based on a true story, is a thriller that captures Hansen during a pivotal moment in the show’s history as he pushes his crew to extreme lengths to pull off sting operations designed to catch child predators.

To Catch a Predator ran from 2004 to 2007 as a periodic special investigative segment on Dateline NBC, following undercover sting operations across the country. The series had a very dark denouement—in November of 2006, the Rockwall County assistant district attorney Bill Conradt, after having chatted with To Catch a Predator’s fake child actor, took his own life when Texas police and the To Catch a Predator team entered his home with search and arrest warrants. This led to the show’s cancellation in 2008, and a subsequent investigation by ABC’s 20/20 and a lawsuit filed by Conradt’s sister.

Pattinson is joined by an excellent cast, including the always superb Merritt Wever, rising star Skyler Gisondo, and superstar musician Phoebe Bridgers.

Check out the trailer below. Primetime hits theaters on September 25.

Featured image: Robert Pattinson is Chris Hansen in “Primetime.” Courtesy of A24