Chris Hansen Grades Robert Pattinson's Primetime Portrayal a D

The former To Catch a Predator host sat through opening night, called the A24 drama fictional and said he's still weighing whether lawyers get involved.

Chris Hansen has seen the movie. He didn't like it much.

The former "To Catch a Predator" host caught an opening-night screening of "Primetime" in a packed Times Square theater on Wednesday, then sat down with Fox News' Jesse Watters the next day to deliver his verdict on "Have a Seat with Chris Hansen." Asked to grade Robert Pattinson's take on him, Hansen didn't hesitate: a D. "Tough grade," Watters said. "He's got some work to do." Hansen's reply: "I'm kind of the only guy that counts in this room."

Outside the theater earlier, Hansen had given reporters a quicker read. "It was so bizarre and so in-and-out of reality," he said, adding that nothing about it matched his actual years running the operations that became NBC's "Dateline" franchise and later "Primetime" block. Lance Oppenheim's film, written by Ajon Singh and loosely drawing on Luke Dittrich's 2007 Esquire piece "Tonight on 'Dateline' This Man Will Die," carries A24's own label of "inspired by true events," not biopic.

That distinction is doing a lot of work for Hansen right now. He told Watters the film is "absolutely a fictional portrayal" of him, his colleagues and the show, and singled out one particular gripe: the movie's version of him as a distant, aloof father. "So far from reality," he called it, and "a cheap shot with no entertainment, literary or benefit to any viewer or society."

The one thing he said he genuinely liked wasn't in the film at all. It was the TruBlu commercial that runs before it.

Things got sharper when Watters pushed on why the film paints Hansen as, in the host's words, "this crazy guy." Hansen pivoted straight to Harvey Weinstein, calling Hollywood an industry "led by one of the most prolific predators to walk the planet" and suggesting someone ought to pull director Lance Oppenheim's own transcripts. Watters agreed there might be an agenda at play. It's a striking accusation to lob at a filmmaker with zero connection to the Weinstein case, and Hansen offered no evidence beyond the suggestion itself.

On the legal front, Hansen has softened. He'd spent months not ruling out a lawsuit, and reiterated that lawyers are still circling. "Several are eager to do something," he said, "I'm not sure that I'm eager to do something." He also pushed back on his earlier claim that A24 tried to make him sign away his name and likeness before an early screening. A source close to the studio told TheWrap the NDA in question was the standard spoiler-protection paperwork every preview audience signs, nothing more.

Hansen isn't done using the moment. He mentioned a documentary called "I'm Chris Hansen," made with people he knows, that's currently being shopped to buyers. Pattinson, for his part, has said he hopes Hansen eventually reads the portrayal as a kind of tribute rather than an attack.

"Primetime" is now playing after a Venice premiere that reportedly earned a seven-minute standing ovation. Whether Hansen's lawyers actually move on it is still an open question.