Long before director Lance Oppenheim’s fever-dream drama Primetime stunned festival crowds, the daring, ripped-from-reality script was dead in the water, rejected and ignored across town until Robert Pattinson intervened.
Why Did Major Studios Reject Primetime
Loosely inspired by Luke Dittrich’s Esquire article exploring the psychological devastation of actors hired as decoys on To Catch a Predator, screenwriter Ajon Singh’s original screenplay took a dark, unflinching look at the sensationalist apparatus behind 2000s vigilante television.
However, when producers first began shopping the project across the studio landscape, Hollywood executives slammed the door, fearing the subject matter was far too dangerous and taboo for mainstream audiences.
“It was sent around and I think a lot of people didn’t really want to engage with it,” Oppenheim explained during a sit-down at Fantastic Fest. “Some people thought it was a little niche—Chris Hansen, this show from 2006. To me, it wasn’t niche at all. But Rob and his producing partner, Brett McCloskey, they saved this script from kind of just ending up in like the digital detritus of people’s email inboxes. Without them, this movie wouldn’t exist.”
Pattinson didn’t just back the project financially but actively sought out Oppenheim after the documentarian jokingly sent him a personalized Chris Hansen Cameo video, sparking a rapid creative partnership. While Pattinson initially signed on solely as an executive producer, Oppenheim quickly realized the story demanded the Batman star front and center to anchor its descent into madness.
“I went to his house with Four Lokos and gummies and a bunch of snacks that were props from the show,” Oppenheim revealed. “He wanted to do something like so different than anything he had done before. He wanted to sort of obliterate himself and find a way to talk about some of his own experiences as an actor… achieving everything you’ve ever dreamt of, and then the dream turns into a nightmare.”
After Oppenheim and Singh spent three frantic weeks overhauling the script into an experiential, hyper-stylized psychological trip tailored to Pattinson’s range, the actor officially signed on to star, turning an abandoned industry reject into one of the year’s boldest cinematic gambles.
Prime Time is out in theatres.
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