Chris Hansen buys ads for his true-crime network before ‘Primetime’ screenings

Moviegoers heading to see A24’s “Primetime” next month will get a message from the real Chris Hansen before the credits even roll — for his own true-crime streaming service, not the film.

Mr. Hansen, the former host of NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” who is portrayed by Robert Pattinson in the new thriller, has purchased pre-show advertising that will run before theatrical screenings of “Primetime,” according to Entertainment Weekly. In the spot, Mr. Hansen revives one of his signature lines — “I’m going to need everyone in the theater to take a seat right over there” — before directing audiences to his network, TruBlu.

TruBlu President Shawn Rech told the outlet the placement was a chance to reach moviegoers already primed to think about Mr. Hansen. He said the film offers an opportunity to reach a very concentrated group of people who either know Chris or are going to know some version of Chris. 

The ad campaign is set to run for four weeks and will not appear in front of any other film, according to The Hollywood Reporter, which first broke news of the ad buy. The outlet reported that Mr. Hansen’s team is also weighing legal options against A24 following the film’s release.

The marketing tie-in comes even as Mr. Hansen has publicly questioned the film’s intentions. On the “Serialously” podcast, he said Hollywood’s motives behind the project remained unclear to him and vowed to look into it further.

Tension escalated further when Mr. Hansen told Fox News host Jesse Watters that he turned down a private screening of “Primetime” after A24’s lawyers asked him to sign what he described as an overly broad agreement. He said the studio’s lawyers wanted him to sign away my rights to my name, image and brand essentially as a condition of viewing the film. 

A source close to the studio disputed that characterization, telling Variety Mr. Hansen’s account of the dispute overstated the terms of a standard nondisclosure agreement. The source said the paperwork was the same NDA required of all preview audiences for an unreleased film, intended to guard against spoilers and protect the studio’s intellectual property — not an attempt to seize Mr. Hansen’s likeness rights.

“Primetime,” directed by Lance Oppenheim, traces the origins of “To Catch a Predator,” which began as a “Dateline” sting segment and became an NBC ratings hit from 2004 to 2007 before drawing sustained criticism over its methods, which relied on adults posing online as teenagers to lure suspects to a hidden-camera sting house.

The film will premiere at the Venice International Film Festival on Sept. 5 before opening in theaters nationwide on Sept. 25.