Bill Conradt died in Murphy, Texas after being caught by Perverted Justice and Dateline NBC partner Perverted Justice in expressing sexual interest in an adult posing as a 13-year-old boy. Nearly 20 years ago, that death pulled Luke Dittrich into a story about Chris Hansen and To Catch a Predator. The result was a longform piece that later fed Primetime, which hits theaters via A24 on Friday.
Yukon Territory to Chile
Luke Dittrich said he got the email nearly 20 years ago while living a pretty isolated life in the Yukon Territory, and he was in Chile on his way to run a marathon in Antarctica when it arrived. “I’d never watched an episode of To Catch a Predator,” he said, adding, “I hadn’t been following the news that closely.” That distance shaped the reporting: he came to the subject as an outsider, not as a viewer chasing a familiar TV brand.
Months of reporting in Texas followed, and the finished piece was titled “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die.” It centered on the collision between a televised sting operation and the death of an assistant district attorney whose home a camera crew for To Catch a Predator was planning to enter when he killed himself. The story did more than recount a crime. It documented how entertainment coverage can keep moving long after the camera crew leaves the scene.
Chris Hansen and To Catch
Luke Dittrich described his conversation with Chris Hansen as “contentious,” which is the right word for a project built on a fatal outcome and a TV format that depended on public exposure. Hansen’s role in To Catch a Predator sits beside Bill Conradt’s suicide here, not because the two are equivalent, but because the production’s planned trip to Texas and the death in Murphy, Texas are inseparable in the reporting. That friction is what made the article linger.
A few years ago, Dittrich was contacted about the rights to his article, and that later put the story on the path to Primetime. Lance Oppenheim’s film builds toward the show’s trip to Texas, with Robert Pattinson portraying Chris Hansen and Ajon Singh writing the script. The adaptation keeps the center of gravity on the same event that started the reporting in the first place: a real death, a TV investigation, and the long afterlife of both.
Friday’s release via A24 is the cleanest next step for readers tracking the story now. If you want the source material, start with “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die”; if you want the screen version, Primetime is the one arriving in theaters.
