‘Stranger than stranger-than-fiction’: how Lance Oppenheim made the year’s two buzziest films
Lance Oppenheim is drawing awards attention for two films that blur the boundaries between reality and performance: the drama Primetime and the documentary You Can See Everything. The article focuses on how he is adapting the strange, theatrical world of Chris Hansen’s television stings into a fictional feature, while working with Nathan Fielder on a secretive documentary about Elizabeth Holmes.
Primetime stars Robert Pattinson as Hansen, whose To Catch a Predator segments ambushed men who arrived at sting houses after online chats with people posing as minors. Oppenheim sees the show as both crime-catching and entertainment, with repeated staging and catchphrases that made disturbing encounters feel like theatre. You Can See Everything follows Holmes during a month before she begins an 11-year prison sentence for fraud and conspiracy, and is tipped as a possible first documentary best picture nominee.
- Lance Oppenheim has two films attracting awards attention.
- Robert Pattinson plays TV sting host Chris Hansen in Primetime.
- A documentary follows Elizabeth Holmes before her 11-year prison term.
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Chris Hansen became widely known for To Catch a Predator, a television series in which men were confronted at houses after arranging online meetings with people posing as minors. The programme combined attempts to expose suspected child predators with the conventions of entertainment television, including repeated scenes and familiar catchphrases.
Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime turns that world into a drama, with Robert Pattinson playing Hansen. Oppenheim is also making You Can See Everything, a documentary with Nathan Fielder that follows Elizabeth Holmes in the month before she begins an 11-year prison sentence for fraud and conspiracy. Holmes founded Theranos, a blood-testing company whose claims led to criminal convictions for defrauding investors.
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