For someone who used to appear on this website seemingly every damn day, Phoebe Bridgers has been keeping a remarkably low profile ever since the boygenius album cycle finally wrapped up at the 2024 Grammys. Punisher, Bridgers' most recent solo album, is about to turn six. Last year, Bridgers contributed to records from Lucy Dacus and jasmine.4.t, but her biggest creative project remains shrouded in secrecy. About a year ago, she was seen in costume in photos from the set of an A24 film called Primetime. Now, we know a tiny bit more about that film's release — at least in India.
Primetime is set to be the first narrative feature from Lance Oppenheim, director of the documentaries Some Kind Of Heaven and Spermworld. Based on early reports, the film is inspired by Chris Hansen, the Dateline NBC host who launched the To Catch A Predator franchise in the '00s. Hansen would set up traps for prospective child predators and then interview them on camera before they were arrested, and the resulting cultural phenomenon was the subject of the recent documentary Predators. In Primetime, Robert Pattinson will play either Chris Hansen or a Chris Hansen-like figure. Beyond that, we don't know much.
On Monday, we got our first concrete information about the release of Primetime, but it's not the American release. Instead, Deadline reports that the Indian streamer Lionsgate Play is including Primetime in its push to a "theatrical first model." Lionsgate Play announced that it has picked up Primetime for a September release, along with stuff like the Russell Crowe thriller Billion Dollar Spy and the Gerard Butler action flick Empire City, as well as a second season of Heated Rivalry.
Given that Primetime is an A24-produced film, it'll presumably get an American release this fall, as well. There's already speculation that it'll be part of this year's Venice Film Festival program. None of that has been announced yet, though. The movie is part of an incredibly busy year for Robert Pattinson, who's currently in theaters in the A24 joint The Drama and who's also got The Odyssey, Dune: Part 3, and Here Comes The Flood on deck.
Again, everything that we know about Primetime is vague at best! We have a pretty good idea that Phoebe Bridgers is in the cast alongside actors like Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, and Sean Bridgers (no relation). We don't yet know whether Phoebe Bridgers has a large or small role. She previously had cameos as herself in I Saw The TV Glow and Between Two Ferns: The Movie, and she did some commercials before she was famous, but this looks like it'll be her proper acting debut.
