Author of 2004 Esquire Piece on 'To Catch a Predator' Discusses Film Adaptation

Nearly two decades after publishing an Esquire long-form piece on the 2003 Texas sting that led to the suicide of assistant district attorney Bill Conradt, journalist Luke Dittrich says the article’s rights were recently sold for a feature film. The story, titled “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die,” detailed how the NBC-partnered program To Catch a Predator staged a live-televised operation that ended in tragedy.

Dittrich, a New York Times best-selling and National Magazine Award-winning writer, traveled to Dallas in 2004 to investigate the case, interviewing police detectives and obtaining raw NBC footage. He later conducted a contentious interview with the show’s host, Chris Hansen, which he described as “hard-questioned” and brief.

A producer from Range Entertainment approached Dittrich about adapting the article, and the rights were acquired for the A24 movie Primetime, directed by Lance Oppenheim and scripted by debut writer Ajon Singh. Robert Pattinson portrays Hansen, while the film blends factual elements with fictionalized drama.

Dittrich, who did not follow the show’s later developments, visited the set and observed the production but did not read the script. He praised the performances and noted that the film captures the “dark, disturbing” overlap between entertainment and criminal-justice narratives that the original sting highlighted. He also consulted on the documentary Predators, helping the crew obtain archival material.

Reflecting on his earlier reporting, Dittrich said the experience required persistent effort to gain source trust and that the case remains a striking example of media-driven crime coverage. He added that both the documentary and the new film illustrate the lasting cultural impact of To Catch a Predator, despite its relatively short run.