Nicotine Pouches and a Hail Mary Pitch: The Wild Way Robert Pattinson Was Lured Into ‘Primetime’

Getting a major movie star to commit to an unusual project often takes more than a good script. For director Lance Oppenheim, it took a little extra persuasion. He’s having a big fall with two films in theaters, and the story behind how his A24 thriller ‘Primetime’ came together has just become one of the more entertaining casting tales of the year.

‘Primetime’ is Oppenheim’s first narrative feature after a career in documentaries. It stars Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen, the host of ‘To Catch a Predator’, and it premiered in competition at the Venice Film Festival before reaching theaters on September 25. The cast also includes Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo and Phoebe Bridgers, with a script by Ajon Singh.

Now Oppenheim has revealed how he helped convince Pattinson to sign on. In an interview with Vulture, he said he sent the actor a new draft of the script along with hundreds of canisters of Zyn nicotine pouches.

The package included a letter addressed in a pun on Hansen’s name, mashing the host’s surname together with the brand. Culture Crave highlighted the anecdote, adding that there was a nationwide shortage of the product at the time.

According to Complex, Singh was tweaking the screenplay as part of a larger effort to win Pattinson over, while Oppenheim took a different approach. The product was temporarily hard to find in the United States, so he reached out to a Canadian friend to have the canisters shipped to Pattinson in Los Angeles. The filmmaker’s account is tongue-in-cheek and describes the stunt as a bribe, so it’s best read as a funny origin story instead of a formal pitch.

The joke also fits the film’s roots. W Magazine reports that the project began with a Chris Hansen Cameo video that Oppenheim’s wife bought him in 2024, and Oppenheim later showed that clip to Pattinson. A casting offer built on a pun about the title character’s name feels like a natural extension of that humor.

New trailer for ‘PRIMETIME’, starring Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen. The film follows Chris Hansen as he runs ‘How To Catch A Predator’ where he confronts adult men who think they are meeting minors to have sex. In theaters on September 25. https://t.co/GsQIkFQiWm

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) August 6, 2026

Pattinson’s performance has drawn strong notice. The Washington Post gave the film 4 stars and described Hansen as getting a nightmarish superhero movie, while The Playlist compared the performance to Jake Gyllenhaal in ‘Nightcrawler’ as one of the most locked-in of its kind. The A.V. Club called it a career-best role for Pattinson and said Oppenheim sticks the landing in his jump from documentaries to fiction.

Not every review was glowing. The Hollywood Reporter praised Pattinson as equal parts cracked and chilling but argued the film shows too little psychological curiosity to displace ‘Predators’ as the more serious study. Variety called it an edgy, exploratory thesis on the dark ambitions behind Hansen’s show. Hansen himself has reportedly given Pattinson credit for the work he put into the role.

The anecdote lands at a moment when Oppenheim is everywhere. He also co-directed ‘You Can See Everything’ with Nathan Fielder, the Elizabeth Holmes documentary that opened to $15 million on October 16. W Magazine notes that having both films arrive in theaters this fall means he’s about to be everywhere, and the film world is clearly paying attention.

‘Primetime’ runs 1 hour and 50 minutes, is rated R, and is shot in a claustrophobic 4:3 aspect ratio that some critics say gives it the feel of an arthouse horror movie. Whether or not the Zyn shipment made the difference, the pairing of Oppenheim’s offbeat sensibility and Pattinson’s commitment has clearly paid off.

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