Tag: Entertainment – Variety

Paramount Skydance representatives are expected to meet on Monday with the California Attorney General’s office to discuss a potential settlement of the states’ antitrust case, according to two sources familiar with the situation.

Paramount has been pushing hard for a deal to allow its $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery to close. The deal is currently on hold pending a March trial in federal court in Oakland.

Attorney General Rob Bonta has said he is open to settlement negotiations, but has also said that Paramount has thus far been unwilling to offer the kind of structural remedies that would be needed to satisfy the states’ concerns.

A Paramount spokesperson declined to comment.

Bonta led a 12-state coalition to challenge the merger in July, arguing that it would illegally contract the marketplace for theatrical distribution and basic cable. The merger would consolidate two of Hollywood’s five legacy studios and two of the top three cable programmers.

Under federal rules, the two sides will have to at least try to settle the case in front of a magistrate judge at some point. At a hearing this week, Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin asked the parties to identify two potential magistrates who could oversee mediation by next Wednesday.

A parade of interested parties has recently come out in favor of a settlement, including the Directors Guild of America, IATSE, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Cinema United, the trade group representing theater chains.

“Earlier this week, you heard the attorney general himself say he’d prefer this settle in the boardroom, not the courtroom,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday. “I think there’s some universal sentiment there, if that’s possible. The question is is that possible. And what’s the best deal? That has to be worked through. That’s a process that’s unfolding, I assure you, in real time.”

Paramount has pledged various commitments to try to get a deal done, including a promise to make 30 films a year for the next three years, and to keep them exclusively in theaters for at least 45 days. Bonta’s office, however, has argued that such behavioral remedies have proven impossible to enforce in the past.

The Writers Guild of America has filed its own lawsuit, which is set to be tried along with the states’ case next March. The WGA is also a party to the stipulation that puts the merger on hold until the trial, and would have be involved the parties are aiming to reach a global resolution. A WGA spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Chris Aronson, who was let go as Paramount‘s head of domestic distribution last year, has filed a lawsuit accusing the company of reneging on an agreement to pay him $1.3 million.

Aronson was fired as part of the executive shakeup that followed the Skydance merger. Shortly before the deal closed, he signed an extension that would have kept him on through December 2028.

According to his suit, filed in L.A. Superior Court, Aronson should have been fully paid out for the remainder of the deal. But Paramount took the position that it could only pay him for two years, leaving him $1.3 million short of a full payout.

The suit argues that Aronson, then 69, was wrongfully fired in part due to his age, and replaced by a much younger executive. The suit alleges that workers 55 and above have represented a disproportionate share of the recent layoffs.

Paramount hired Shaun Barber, a top distribution exec at Lionsgate, to take on Aronson’s role.

Aronson was hired in 2019, following a lengthy career at Fox that ended in the wake of the Disney merger. As head of domestic distribution at Paramount, he was responsible for the rollout of “Top Gun: Maverick,” and installments in the “Mission: Impossible,” “A Quiet Place” and “Sonic the Hedgehog” franchises.

On Sept. 29, 2025, weeks after Skydance closed its acquisition of Paramount, Aronson was called into a meeting and informed that he was being let go “without cause” and would be fully paid out on his contract. There was also a suggestion of a consulting deal, though that never materialized, the complaint states.

It was only after Aronson left the company, in December, that his lawyers flagged a provision in Paramount’s severance agreement that limited his payout to two years. Aronson’s lawyers argue that Paramount’s lawyers are misreading an IRS provision that affects the timing of severance payouts.

The suit alleges that Paramount’s unlawful termination has caused him some $4 million in economic damages. He is seeking punitive damages as well.

Paramount did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sonic the Hedgehog will headline Fortnite’s new “Override” season. 

Players will be able to play as Sonic and unlock the Tails Sidekick with the purchase of the Battle Pass for the hedgehog’s 35th anniversary. The collaboration will also feature the Tails Sprite, Rings and Sonic Power Sneakers, which allow players to Spin Dash in their fight against Dr. Eggman. 

“Bringing Sonic and his friends into Fortnite gives generations of fans an exciting new way to experience these beloved characters together and serves as another major moment in Sonic’s 35th anniversary,” Takashi Iizuka, Sonic Creative Officer, Sega of America, Inc., tells Variety. 

The “Override” season also includes classic video game mechanics, such as Cheat Codes and 1-Up Tokens. 

See more gaming news from this week in the roundup below.

DATA/SALES

U.S. video game spending has dropped 10% across content, hardware and accessories compared to last year, according to Circana’s July video games report.

Mobile was the biggest driver of the decline, which totaled just $4.5 billion. Hardware spending reached a low last seen in July 2020 due to the global pandemic, the report also revealed. 

Additional key takeaways include higher hardware prices impacting the selling of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series. Prices in Nintendo Switch 2 will also see a spike in prices Sept. 1. 

Beginning January 2028, Sony will stop producing physical software for new games, although physical software YTD for PlayStation hardware made up 32% of total US consumer spending on new physical games. 

GAME UPDATES/DLC

Get in, losers! It’s time to take your Sim shopping.

“The Sims 4″ is getting two new for-purchase fashion kits for “Mean Girls” and “Clueless,” upgrading players’ online closets with ’90s and early 2000s looks. 

Starting Aug. 27, the Mean Girls Capsule will bring a fetch array of miniskirts and matching sweaters and velour track suits, plus looks inspired by some of the film’s most notable scenes: the jingle bell performance and Mathletes team jacket. The Clueless Capsule Kit will feature Cher’s infamous yellow-plaid set, layered tops, button-front skirts, workout wear and overalls inspired by Tai.

Think you won’t have enough to wear after these fashion kits? Ugh! As if!

IN-GAME EVENTS

“Game of Thrones: Dragonfire” is adding a limited-time “House of the Dragon” event to celebrate the series finale.

Available now until Aug. 24, all dragons released throughout Season 3 are back at the Hatchery. The dragons are identical to those seen on screen and each possess unique passive Habit abilities, troop affinities and powerful synergies. They will return to standard drop rates following the limited-time event.

Players can link their HBO Max and Warner Bros. Games accounts to “Game of Thrones: Dragonfire” to earn rewards by watching the third season of “House of the Dragon” until Oct. 1.

TABLETOP CARD/RPG

Ravensburger announced a digital version of the Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game (TCG) is officially in the works. 

While at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, Ravensburger shared Disney Lorcana TCG will be featured at more Disney events and theme parks starting 2027, including exclusive cards at Epcot’s International Festival of the Arts. It is also set to expand across the Disney Cruise Line with its Collection Quests. 

Curator’s Collection Beauty and the Beast Edition, the new addition to the Curator’s Collection line, will release this October at select Disney locations and will feature new artwork of the film’s characters.

The digital version of Disney Lorcana TCG will be playable on desktop and mobile. Fans can check its status on the Disney Lorcana website.

LIVE EVENTS

UNO! just upped the stakes: fans around the world can compete for the title of the tournament champion and a $50,000 grand prize at the UNO Championship Series on Nov. 11. 

Gamers will participate in a series of in-person qualifying tournaments starting in Kissimmee, Florida on Oct. 3, Chicago on Oct. 10 and El Segundo, California on Oct. 17. There will also be digital qualifiers through the UNO! Mobile app. Play your cards right and you just might make it to the live entertainment stage. 

The competition is a two-hour event in Los Angeles bringing top players together for a showdown that will be streamed live on Twitch.

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The Esports Foundation (EF) has postponed the inaugural Esports Nations Cup until November 2027. 

Originally planned to take place in November 2026, the event date was changed after “ongoing assessment of the wider regional situation.”

“The decision to postpone the Esports Nations Cup was not taken lightly,” said Ralf Reichert, CEO of the Esports Foundation. “The response from National Team Partners, publishers, players and communities around the world has shown us how much potential this competition has. We owe them an inaugural ENC delivered under the right conditions and at the level this idea deserves.” 

The Esports Foundation (EF) is a nonprofit organization based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia that aims to develop global gaming and esports. The Esports Nations Cup (ENC) is a global international esports competition for nations and territories. 

NEW VENTURES

New game studio Black Pony Immersive has launched from game developers Harvey Smith and Ben Horne.

The studio is built to design and develop first-person action RPGs where players can create their own experiences with emergent game systems.

Smith serves as CEO and creative director for Black Pony Immersive. Horne is the chief operating officer and executive producer. Ricardo Bare is the design director.

Smith served as studio director at Arkane Austin and is known for his work on the “Deus Ex” and “Dishonored” game series. Horne served as production director at Arkane Austin. Bare was most recently creative director at Arkane Studios and has worked as a designer on franchises including “Deus Ex” and “Prey.”

RELEASE DATES

Moomintroll and his family need your help! In “Moomin: Midsummer Madness,” Moominvalley has been submerged by a great flood, and Moomintroll and Little My need to make their way home. Join Moomintroll on his adventure on Nov. 12 for $19.99 USD (€19.50) on PC and Nintendo Switch 1 and 2.

Embark on the journey by solving puzzles and mysteries within the point-and-click adventure game. You might even uncover the secrets of a mysterious floating theatre full of familiar faces. 

These hand-drawn characters are brought to life from the fantasy novel “Moominsummer Madness” by Finnish-Swedish writer and artist Tove Jansson.  “Moomin: Midsummer Madness” is the latest adventure in the Moomin multiverse, brought to gamers by Crossbridge Game Studios and publisher Shochiku Games.

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Construction sites just got a whole lot scarier. PlaySide Studios is expanding its “Dumb Ways To Die” IP and launching even more ways to die with their latest spinoff game “Dumb Ways to Build” on Sept. 10.

In “Dumb Ways to Build,” players can wield a physics-based arsenal of tools to build construction sites and improvise their way out of chaotic and fatal situations. Whether tackling the job site with up to four friends in an online crew or braving it alone in Solo Play, the game puts your building and survival skills to the test.

The game will be available across PC via Steam, PlayStation 5 and Xbox X|S for USD $7.99.

Jessie Cave, the actor who portrayed Lavender Brown in three “Harry Potter” movies, appeared in a recent interview on the U.K. talk show “This Morning” and spoke openly about her decision to launch an OnlyFans last year to help get her out of debt. Her decision resulted in a “Potter” fan convention barring her from being included.

“People just assume I’m rich and I have loads of money and no I don’t,” Cave said, noting her role as Lavender Brown “was a small-ish part and it was 20 years ago.”

“So it was embarrassing,” she continued about joining OnlyFans, “because on a certain level, I would have really liked to get a job. But you know what it’s like, you have kids. It costs so much for childcare… [OnlyFans] really has saved me.”

Cave referred to herself as a “struggling artist,” noting she mainly does one-woman shows with puppets these days. But her OnlyFans page has afforded her the opportunity to continue with these artistic endeavors: “This is how I’m making a living as an artist which… I want to have less shame about it. I want other people who do weird art like me, I want them to know that there is some way of still making [it].”

Cave started an OnlyFans account for her hair in May 2025. She said in an Instagram video at the time that she would be offering subscribers “the best quality hair sounds” and “very sensual stuff.” Cave does not post sexual content to OnlyFans, instead appealing to users with hair fetishes.

“My aim? To get the house safe, cover the arsenic/lead wallpaper, build a new roof etc.” Cave explained at the time of her decision. “My aim? To get out of debt. My aim? To empower myself? To prove to those in the past who have misjudged me that I’m not so sweet? To put time into something I never invested in before: self-love.”

Cave debuted as Lavender Brown in 2009’s “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and reprised the role in both “Deathly Hallows” movies. While she is best known for her work in the “Harry Potter” movies, Cave has also appeared in films such as “Great Expectations” and on television series like “Black Mirror” and “Industry.” She voiced Lavender Brown in two “Harry Potter” video games.

When a “Harry Potter” fan convention barred her from attending a few months later because “OnlyFans is affiliated with porn,” Cave noted the decision was “baffling to me as some actors who do conventions (most actors, actually) have done TV and films in which they’ve done sex scenes and nudity. I’m just playing with my hair!”

“I am not upset about the prospect of no more ‘Harry Potter’ conventions,” Cave added. “There’s going to be a new cast now and it’s a different time. Plus, I have done conventions for over 15 years and have enough photos and wizard memorabilia.”

Watch Cave’s full interview on “This Morning” in the video below.

Veteran Icelandic producer Hlín Jóhannsdóttir of Ursus Parvus, behind titles from some Iceland’s most renowned filmmakers including Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Dagur Kári and Rúnar Rúnarsson, has signed with French-U.K. sales outfit Alief on the coming-of-age “Just a Kid” (“Bara barn”) by up-and-coming writer-director Vala Ómarsdóttir.

To be pitched at New Nordic Films’ Works in Progress in Haugesund, Aug. 27, the project fits into Jóhannsdóttir’s roster of debut features by talented female directors, next to “Quake” by Tinna Hrafnsdóttir, which Alief sold to more than 20 territories including Juno Films in the U.S.

Besides Alief, which chipped in an Minimum Guarantee, a strong partner on the project is Estonian producer Marianne Ostrat of Alexandra Film, producer of Sundance winner and Estonian Oscar entry ”Smoke Sauna Sisterhood,” co-produced by Ursus Parvus.

In “Just a Kid,” the story turns on 16-year old Julia (Birgitta Marín Thorsdottir) who’s moved from Norway to Iceland and struggles to balance caring for her younger sister with fitting in at a new school. Drawn to charismatic Salka (Hafrún Arna Levy from “When the Light Breaks In”) and the school newspaper, she begins to find her voice. But when a traumatic drunken night resurfaces, Júlía must confront shame, family responsibilities and the courage to tell her own story, reads the logline.

Speaking with Variety, the versatile filmmaker and performer Ómarsdóttir said the idea for the pic developed when she was pregnant with her second daughter. “I remember thinking about this bond we have, knowing that at some point when [my kids] get older they will not need me as much as they do now. I am very interested in this mother-daughter bond, especially concerning the teenage years,” said the helmer. 

After researching “what it feels like being a teenager today,” Ómarsdóttir said she drew from the rehearsal-driven sessions with her young cast “to continue the research, understand, and tell the story from their point of view.” “The whole experience was a long and exciting journey where I learned and discovered so many things. Both in visual storytelling and in human nature regarding the need to connect with someone and the need to set boundaries,” she said.

Alief partner Miguel Govea who boarded the pic at development stage said “the story and setting drew us in. Once we saw the rehearsals, and proof of concept, we knew Hlin [Hrafnsdóttir] and Vala [Ómarsdóttir] had concocted some magic.”

Boiling down the story and audience appeal he added: “Just a Kid” is a tender story of teen-angst and sexual awakening with a handsome cast that will resonate with discerning audiences.”

“Just a Kid” received funding from the Icelandic Film Centre, Icelandic tax rebates, RÚV, Saga Film, Studio Syrland, Nordisk Film & TV Fond, and Estonian tax rebates. Max will handle the theatrical release in Iceland.

“Driving Mum” Team

In Haugesund, Jóhannsdóttir will also pitch at the Nordic Co-Production Market another project very close to her heart: “At The End of the Road,” which reunites her with the core team of the Tallinn Grand Prix winner “Driving Mum:” writer/director Hilmar Oddsson, prominent actor (“Noi the Albino,” “Solitude”) and Hera Hilmar (“Mortal Engines,” “Life in a Fishbowl”).

In it, Leó, a renowned geriatrician specialized in Alzheimer’s disease, develops an unconventional friendship with Ásdís, a psychiatrist who’s returned to Iceland to care for her ailing grandmother. When Ásdís discovers that Leó himself is developing Alzheimer’s, both are forced to confront buried secrets.
Jóhannsdóttir said she contributed to the development process with Oddsson and Gunnarsson as all have personal experiences about Alzheimer’s. “Sitting together, the three of us, and discussing the script was among the most rewarding experiences of my career as a creative producer,” she told Variety, underlining that the tone will remain darkly humorous. “I think a lot of people familiar with the disease will relate to the tragi-comedic side of Alzheimer’s.”

“At the End of the Road” will “hopefully be both funny and dramatic, poetic, dreamlike, and realistic all at once,” said Oddsson in a statement.

In Haugesund, Jóhannsdóttir will be looking for co-producers, co-financiers, sales and distribution.
Commenting on the fact that “Just and Kid” and “At the End of the Road” are the only Icelandic projects selected for the popular the Norwegian Intl. Film Festival’s New Nordic Films showcase (Aug. 25-28)  at Haugesund, the seasoned producer, who sat on the board of the Icelandic Producers Association for several years, said “things are very difficult in Iceland, funding-wise.” 

Citing the important Aug. 29 Icelandic referendum on whether to resume EU membership talks, she said: “our small nation is split, but it is really important for us producers that people at least to say ‘yes’ to the negotiations.”

On March 16, 2025, a fire broke out at the Pulse nightclub in the small North Macedonian town of Kočani, injuring hundreds and killing 63 people due to burn damage, smoke inhalation and other physical traumas sustained while attendees scrambled to flee through the venue’s sole exit. The club had only one fire extinguisher and its ceiling was made of highly flammable material, while the venue’s 250-person capacity was exceeded by double the amount of people, most of them between the ages of 16 and 25. 

Making its world premiere in Sarajevo’s documentary competition, Milcho Manchevski’s “Good People” leaves the broader political context to the journalists. Arriving a little over thirty years since his auspicious debut, the muscular war drama “After the Rain,” nabbed Venice’s Golden Lion, this strikingly austere and undecorated film, which Manchevski self-funded, doesn’t cover the vast institutional failures that precipitated the incident and increased its casualties. Instead, it assembles over 20 first-hand accounts by victims and witnesses, bringing to life the tragedy’s harrowing timeline through testimonies entirely. The result is a haunting portrait of social collapse whose power is premised on the words and faces of survivors. 

Bookended by drone shots of the Macedonian countryside and a somber cello refrain by Novogradska, this 86-minute doc is otherwise composed of scoreless interviews with subjects seated in front of black curtains and captured in medium range. (Two brief exceptions include silent, phone-recorded footage of, first, the spark on the ceiling prior to the full break-out, and, second, an outside view of the club obscured by plumes of smoke.) The simplicity of the setup simplicity pays respect to the memory of the fallen, refusing to sensationalize the events or cater to morbid curiosity — principles that have dictated a long tradition of documentary filmmaking that privileges oral testimony, like Claude Lanzmann’s “Shoah” and Chantal Akerman’s “Tell Me.” 

But unlike those long take-heavy films, “Good People” cuts frequently between its subjects, a chorus-like effect that is sometimes choppy as editor Mishko Chunikhin flits between longer memories and observations as short as a few words. The doc starts out by describing the club’s downward spiral, with survivors — some of whose burn marks you can observe on their necks and hands — sharing eerily similar experiences. The beginning of the fire was widely mistaken as a special effect put on by the pop group performing at the time, and the flames spread quicker than clubbers could realize what was happening.

“My eyes were seeing so many things that my brain couldn’t process,” says one of the more eloquent speakers, a young woman with shell-shocked eyes and flat-ironed hair who lost all of her friends in the incident. Proceeding chronologically through the night, the speakers recall navigating the chaos of people rushing toward the exit; and how this fatal stampede, along with asphyxiating conditions, knocked people unconscious, creating a “carpet of dead kids” under which more people were trapped and sometimes killed by suffocation, all while “burning alive.”

Frequent fades to black and plain intertitles, displaying pithy phrases drawn from the interviews (like “that’s it” and “like helpless animals”), allow for moments of silence, encouraging the subjects’ words to soak in. These pauses also give the documentary an air of mournful respect, making its pace more deliberate than the standard talking heads-doc that might be mistaken as a stylistic counterpart. 

The second half introduces some parents of survivors and interviews with a handful of locals and early escapees who (re-)entered the club to help pull out injured bodies. The doc’s tagline — “when good people burn in hell” — comes off more than a bit crude, but the descriptions of people running out of the club burned and naked, their clothes and shoes torn off in the push to escape; or victims with bodies hot to the touch, their skin melting and ripping off the bone as rescuers pull them out from beneath piles of corpses, certainly justifies the metaphor. Against expectation, the film eschews neat narratives about survival and heroism. Ethics and normal human behavior are subsumed by “pure animal instinct” and “kicking, clawing, and biting.”

If this doesn’t seem like a gracious revelation, there’s a point to the deep horror that Manchevski draws out here. As one subject explains, she feels “indignity” to have been violated so deeply by what she endured and witnessed. “Good People” may not explore the structural inadequacies that allowed this catastrophe to happen, but it does remind us of the ease with which our modern world can slide back into medieval times — and the responsibility we have to prevent it. 

“The Marching Band” blasts through more story in its first 12 minutes than many films now manage in two hours. In those first 720 seconds we meet Thibaut (Benjamin Lavernhe), a well-heeled classical music conductor in Paris, who discovers that he will need to find a blood marrow transplant as he has leukemia; he learns that his sister is not a match, as he was adopted; he then discovers a biological brother, Jimmy (Pierre Lottin), who was not adopted and still lives in a disadvantaged working-class community in the north of France; he asks his new-found brother to help him, and Jimmy accepts.

That concision is evident in an almost brutally economical edit and in sharp, precise writing which provides narrative elements and deftly sketches character before moving busily on. Just as a marching band keeps time with its feet, so “The Marching Band” strides on, hitting the requisite notes and paying attention to the melody, sure, but especially making sure to hold the beat and keep the show on the road. This attention to rhythm helps director Emmanuel Courcol‘s film to stay true as it navigates some rather rocky terrain, for it is at once a mismatched buddy movie, a socially conscious crowdpleaser in the vein of, say, “The Full Monty,” and a sophisticated psychological drama à la française.

That the film mostly pulls this off is testament to its formal precision and to a central pairing of actors, in Lavernhe and Lottin, who manage to find subtlety where broad strokes would seem to be called for. More than two years after its Cannes premiere, “The Marching Band” opens theatrically in the U.S. this week through Greenwich Entertainment.

Once the film has dispatched its initial premise — the leukemia storyline is essentially a MacGuffin, and soon disappears for a sizable stretch — it can get down to the business of developing a bond between the characters, and establishing its (gentle) social critique. Jimmy, who works as a cook in a canteen, has a musical gift, which throws into sharp relief the different chances both men have been given in life. A scene in which this terse, withdrawn young man is revealed to have perfect pitch is typical of “The Marching Band’s” best qualities in its appealing first hour or so: Thibaut asks his brother to identify the sounds of a honking car or a barking dog, and Jimmy shyly names the correct chords. That pertness should be unbearable, but the scene is written in a minor key and performed by both actors to match, favouring eye contact and murmurs; the sheer brevity prevents it from becoming gloopy or crass.

The casting of Lavernhe and Lottin is particularly inspired, as the two performers bring an affect to these characters that mimics the story’s dynamic. Lavernhe, credited as “Benjamin Lavernhe de la Comédie-Française,” comes from a background in classical theatre, and performs his role with worldly elegance; Lottin, meanwhile, is a veteran of the popular comedy franchise “Les Tuche”, centering on a working-class family from the north of France. These sensibilities come together in the film’s tight dialogue, as when the two men meet and Thibaut introduces himself: “My name is Thibaut Desormeaux, and two weeks ago I learned I have leukemia…” Jimmy: “Ah, shit.” Thibaut: “Yes.”

Lottin is particularly intelligent in articulating Jimmy’s shame at his lack of means and achievement, inflected with pride and a lightly worn resentment that comes out in bursts of passive-aggressive joshing; meanwhile, Lavernhe deftly portrays the well-meaning and likable Thibaut as, conversely, insufficiently ashamed of his good fortune, at least early on: This smooth Parisian bobo does not even perceive how he flaunts his wealth and education.

In parallel, “The Marching Band” depicts a working-class community struggling with poverty and unemployment, for whom the musical collective — in which Jimmy plays the trombone, alongside his on-off girlfriend Sabrina (Sarah Suco) — has become a lifeline. Thibaut becomes involved, but will he be able to save the band from ruin? Here, the film closely mirrors the 1996 British comedy “Brassed Off,” making it a dead cert that we’ll eventually get a barn-burning finale showing the federating power of music in adversity.

Revealing how that comes about would enter spoiler territory, but saying that it happens at all is germane, as it shows that the film finally falls victim to formula. In these pre-ordained moments — a surfeit of montages, an artificial falling-out between the brothers, the occasional dip into the saccharine — “The Marching Band” becomes a touch pleased with itself. The formula works (and the film has the domestic box-office receipts to prove it), but it detracts somewhat from the project’s smarts elsewhere.

In a well-presented technical package, plaudits should go to editor Guerric Catala for a cut that attempts to shun sentiment, and to Christel Birot for costumes that smartly outline both character and class differences via the means of double denim or a freshly pressed felted overshirt. The music department, as well as Courcol’s lively directing and writing, must be commended for scenes of the brass ensemble playing and rehearsing, in a constantly dynamic interaction with dialogue. The zippy soundtrack, much like the film itself, veers between surprisingly choice cuts (the aching “I Remember Clifford” by Lee Morgan) and rabble-rousing crowdpleasers (Dalida, or the overture from “Aida”). Ravel’s “Bolero,” which repeats the same phrase over and over again but with tonal differences each time, also features.

Chris Hansen didn’t get to take a seat for the new A24 movie “Primetime.”

The 66-year-old veteran journalist went to the offices of indie distributor A24 to watch the Lance Oppenheim film, in which he is played by Robert Pattinson, before it bows at the Venice Film Festival. But he left without seeing it.

The former “To Catch a Predator” host went on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” to say he showed up at the studio’s offices for a 10 a.m. private screening of “Primetime” on Thursday. The Pattinson-led drama is built around Hansen’s run atop the hidden-camera franchise. But Hansen claims he walked away after refusing to sign a legal agreement he describes as unlike anything he has encountered in four decades on the beat.

A source close to A24 said Hansen was asked to sign a standard NDA that all preview audiences must adhere to for an unreleased film — mostly to prevent spoilers and protect the studio’s IP.

“The lawyers at A24 wanted me to sign away my rights to my name, image and brand essentially, as well as any potential legal rights that would come out of the movie,” Hansen claimed during the appearance. “I couldn’t sign that, so they didn’t show me the film. I went all the way over there.”

Pressed by Watters on whether he walked in without legal cover, Hansen says his attorneys had already reviewed the paperwork and advised against signing. “Of course not,” he says when asked if he put his name to anything without a lawyer present. “This was a very restrictive agreement. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

The agreement Hansen describes would be a much larger legal matter than a standard screening NDA, and would not be asked of other individuals screening the film — including press and third-party marketing agencies.

The account marks a sharp turn from where Hansen left things only days earlier. Speaking on the “Serialously With Annie Elise” podcast, he said A24 was setting him up with a private screening “in the next week or so,” after which he would render a verdict on the film and how he felt about the depiction of his career.

Hansen says he cannot say what the studio might be worried about, because he still has not watched a minute of the picture. “I haven’t seen the film,” he says. “If you look at the trailer, obviously it’s a very dramatized version. They had told me that it’s fictionalized in many aspects. I know other people have seen it who didn’t sign an NDA, and yet they wanted me to sign it.”

In the trailer and other marketing materials for the film, the indie distributor has labeled “Primetime” as “inspired by true events” and has not characterized it as a biopic of Hansen or his life.

The film is written by Ajon Singh, one of Variety’s 10 Screenwriters to Watch from 2025, and is inspired by “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die” by Luke Dittrich.

Hansen is careful to note he is not chasing a payday. “I have no financial stake in this film,” he says, adding that no one from the production paid him or brought him aboard as a consultant. He learned the movie existed, he says, the way he has learned most things across a long career. “I’m just a working reporter, and I’m not learned in the sophisticated ways of Hollywood. But I find stuff out,” Hansen says. “I’ve been an investigative reporter for four decades, so I knew this was going on.”

His frustration, he suggests, is less about the film than the timing of the outreach. “I get a call today saying, ‘Well, you know, everybody’s concerned. They want you to be happy with the film,’” Hansen says. “Well, then why didn’t you tell me about it when you started shooting the film?”

“Primetime” opens in theaters Sept. 25 following its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival. Directed by Oppenheim in his narrative feature debut and written by Ajon Singh, the movie follows Hansen in 2006 as “To Catch a Predator” makes the leap from “Dateline NBC” segment to its own primetime block. Pattinson stars and produces through his Icki Eneo Arlo banner, with a supporting cast that includes Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers and Bokeem Woodbine. Former NBCUniversal chief Jeff Zucker appears as himself.

“To Catch a Predator” ran from 2004 to 2007 as a recurring “Dateline NBC” investigation, pairing Hansen and a camera crew with decoys posing as minors to confront men who arrived at sting houses. The franchise was canceled after a 2006 Texas operation in which Rockwall County assistant district attorney Louis Conradt died by suicide as authorities and the show’s crew closed in on his home.

For now, it looks like Hansen will have to see the movie the way the rest of the country will, with a paid theater ticket. Asked what he would say to Pattinson, he reaches, inevitably, for the line that made him famous. “Take a seat right over there,” Hansen says.

A24 declined to comment.