‘Primetime’ writer Ajon Singh on the Chris Hansen meme machine and that Phoebe Bridgers NIN shirt

The Indian American writer takes us through the conception of ‘Primetime’, from Robert Pattinson’s hands-on transformation of Hansen to the ‘Network’ blueprint, the story behind the Kerala mythology and the internet folklore that followed in the film’s wake

Updated - October 08, 2026 06:52 pm IST

‘Primetime’ writer Ajon Singh, with the now viral “You see how this looks right” meme, and Phoebe Brigers sporting that iconic NIN t-shirt | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement, Instagram

Lance Oppenheim may be the name presently affixed to Primetime’s ascent into one of Robert Pattinson’s most talked-about films of the year, but its exceptional screenplay’s particular strain of derangement belongs to Indian American writer Ajon Singh. His surreal writing takes the 2007 Esquire investigation into the rise and collapse of NBC’s televised predator-hunting circus and cannibalises it into a psychological crime thriller around the man, the myth and the legend of Chris Hansen, whose years of self-mythologised crusading had become inextricably enmeshed with the pursuit of other people’s depravity. Ajon speaks to The Hindu about the project’s genesis, the creative influences that informed its strange formal style, and the immediate internet afterlife it has acquired since its release.

Named after the opening verse of the Guru Granth Sahib, Ajooni Saibhang, Ajon is now based in Los Angeles, though Primetime was made while he was based in New York. The provenance of his original script came from the Esquire piece “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die,” which examined the dubious machinery surrounding To Catch a Predator, most consequentially the sting involving Texas prosecutor Bill Conradt, whose televised suicide exposed the extremities of the format becoming ever more invested in its own unfettered spectacle. Ajon’s first conception of the material was closer to a political thriller, but the screenplay underwent a creative reconception once Lance Oppenheim and Robert Pattinson entered the project.

‘Primetime’ writer Ajon Singh | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Though initially only attached as producer, Ajon suspected Pattinson was discussing Hansen with a more personal investment than he was letting on. “We had this epic night where he had me, Lance [Oppenheim], and his producing partner Brighton McCloskey,” Ajon says. He recalls Pattinson speaking about Hansen as though another actor would play him, except that he kept reciting lines from the script, talking about Hansen’s habits and describing himself running around a local reservoir listening to the Chris Hansen podcast. Ajon caught on. “I would pretend to go to the bathroom throughout the night, and I would take notes on my phone about what he was saying. I left that dinner thinking, “he’s talking about it for another actor, but I think he’s actually talking about it for himself,” he chuckles.

Five days later, after speaking with Oppenheim about a game plan, Ajon had rewritten the entire character for Pattinson, getting him onto the film while he remained a producer. That dual role became “a huge superpower” for the film, he says. “He had an immense amount of involvement and creative interest. He was constantly wondering about different scenes. Once he was on as an actor, he would really try to stress-test every scene, which is good, because you want the film to be as hardy and bulletproof as possible by the time you actually shoot it.”

View this post on InstagramA post shared by Ajon Singh (@ajon.singh)

In the weeks leading up to the shoot, Ajon, Oppenheim and Pattinson worked late in a freezing Brooklyn office, often until two or three in the morning, “sometimes arguing, sometimes hugging”. Once they went into production, Ajon says, “you’re in the Rob world.” The plan they had spent weeks working out could then give way to eight different takes on the same scene, “all very different,” and “each one of them profoundly special.”

If Primetime has a singular, most influential cinematic progenitor, it would likely be Sidney Lumet’s Network. The 1976 black comedy satire starring Peter Finch, occupies a particularly exalted place in Ajon’s personal pantheon (and Letterboxd Top 4). “Network is one of the biggest inspirations for me in general, even in the way I live my life,” he says, praising screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky as one of the all time greats. But his conception of Primetime also came from looking at the historical moment in which To Catch a Predator emerged. “The media landscape was drastically changing from the kind of network era, where Friends and Seinfeld was popular. Those shows eventually went off the air, and they had to figure out what to do, how to fill that emptiness or that void,” he says.