Robert Pattinson becomes a ruthless reality-show host in “Primetime,” premiering in Venice

Robert Pattinson captivated the Venice Film Festival as a television host who turns the pursuit of audiences into a nightmare in “Primetime,” Lance Oppenheim’s fiction debut.

The film follows an insatiable reality-show presenter modeled on Chris Hansen, the host of the controversial U.S. program “To Catch a Predator.” In the 2000s, Hansen lured alleged sexual abusers with fake teenagers before confronting them on television.

Pattinson plays a self-styled “avenger” who exposes men chatting with children in front of the entire country. Beneath that public mission, however, lies a more personal hunger: he wants to win the prime-time slot and topple the era’s leading shows. His pursuit of an anonymous “big fish” drives him toward a tragic abyss that threatens to swallow his program.

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The idea that fascinated me was what happens when you become one of the darkest subjects in the world of entertainment?

Oppenheim said the idea that fascinated him was what happens when someone becomes one of the darkest subjects in entertainment. Pattinson, who also contributed to the film’s production, said he worked to make the role so closely his own that nobody else could play it. He said preparing for the character required more work than any role he had previously taken.

The film recreates the frenetic, early-2000s television world, including the battle between networks, the audience’s appetite and a society beginning to blur the lines between information, justice and entertainment. Its presentation in Venice also marks Oppenheim’s debut in feature fiction after documentaries including “Some Kind of Heaven” and “Spermworld.”

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I gradually became more and more attached to him. Preparing the character required an enormous amount of work, more than any other role I have done.