Oppenheim Tells Hansen to 'Have a Seat' Over 2004-Era Primetime Dispute

Q: Why is Chris Hansen really refusing to sign the NDA for the upcoming Robert Pattinson film about his controversial past?

Chris Hansen appears to be refusing because he believes the screening agreement could limit his ability to challenge or publicly criticize *Primetime* before release, while A24’s side says it was only a routine spoiler-protection NDA. Publicly, Hansen has said the document was “very restrictive” and that his lawyers advised him not to sign it. He claimed it would have affected rights tied to his name, image, brand, and possible legal claims arising from the film. He has also suggested a broader objection: that the movie fictionalizes a controversial part of his career, uses his identity without involving him, and may portray him and his work in a way he sees as exploitative or ethically troubling. But multiple reports citing sources close to A24 say Hansen was not being asked to “sign away” his rights at all. According to those accounts, the form was a standard advance-screening NDA used for unreleased films to prevent spoilers and protect intellectual property, and it would have expired once the film was released. Those reports say Hansen refused to sign that standard agreement, so he was not allowed to see the movie early. So the real dispute is less about whether there was an NDA — there was — and more about what Hansen believed signing it would mean. Based on the reporting, Hansen seems to be protecting his ability to speak freely and preserve any legal options, while the studio maintains it was ordinary pre-release procedure, not an attempt to strip his rights.

3 articles · Updated · The Daily Beast · Sep 4

Lance Oppenheim answered Chris Hansen’s complaints about Primetime by inviting him to “have a seat” and watch the film, saying he wants to hear Hansen’s reaction once he sees it.
Hansen, who has not seen the movie, said he was never consulted on content or Robert Pattinson’s casting and claimed he was blocked from a screening unless he signed away rights to his name and brand.
A source told Deadline the disputed document was a standard NDA, while Oppenheim said he was not present for that screening episode and could not address it directly.
Oppenheim said the film examines what working inside an “extremely dark world” does to journalists as serious reporting becomes entangled with entertainment.
Primetime dramatizes Hansen’s 2004-2008 To Catch a Predator run, a Dateline segment later shadowed by ethical scrutiny, a 56-year-old Texas prosecutor’s suicide and a $105 million lawsuit against NBC.