“Since [originally expressing excitement about the film], he has done what Chris Hansen, the showman, does and has said a lot more about it,” says Oppenheim. “His reaction to the film right now is exactly what the film is about.” While maintaining that he was and is “a fan” of the controversial TV figure, Oppenheim assessed Hansen and his signature creation, stating, “Yes, he’s a journalist. Yes, he’s an entertainer. But he’s also an artist. He made this hall of mirrors, with adult actors pretending to be children and sets that looked like something out of Blue Velvet. Without that show, I don’t think I would be making films the way I do.”
But for the award-winning documentarian, there’s a specific synergy in star Robert Pattinson’s casting as the child predator-hunting Hansen. “Rob presented me with the screenplay wanting to produce it, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to act in it. I said the only person who can play this part is you,” states Oppenheim, adding, “Rob is Batman. Chris Hansen, at least in the film, is a superhero specifically when he’s across the kitchen island from one of these potential predators. Everywhere else, he’s a man who wants to be a superhero who wants the control he experiences when he’s shooting his show. There’s a gulf, and that makes for a very interesting character study.”
For Primetime viewers, the ghost of Pattinson’s Caped Crusader—with his utility belt bulging with neuroses and an unflagging drive for justice—might indeed take on a few new shades. And if that experience inevitably brings up unbidden images of Chris Hansen angrily trying on a homemade Batman costume in front of a mirror, well, that’s on you.
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