Jason Reitman to Direct Film About Opening Night of SNL

[Sawyer]

The film will be set on Oct. 11th, 1975, where a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever. This is the true story of what happened that night behind the scenes in the moments leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. The chaos and magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, as we countdown the minutes in real time to the infamous words, Live From New York, it’s Saturday Night.

I love this. Love even more that it’s focused on a specific point, rather than being comprehensive of the entire SNL run.

 

[sueb1863]

Sounds interesting!! The trickiest part is going to be finding actors to play the original SNL players, all of whom are very well known.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Yeah, I’m down for this! Casting is key.

 

[Sawyer]

If this goes ahead, it’s not just the SNL cast they’ve got to worry about getting right. George Carlin hosted that first episode, too.

 

[Pennywise]

EXCLUSIVE: Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night Live origin pic is gaining a ton of momentum as Gabriel LaBelle is set to play Lorne Michaels, Cooper Hoffman is on board to play Dick Ebersol and Rachel Sennott will play Rosie Shuster. Reitman will write and direct.

 

[Sawyer]

LaBelle and Hoffman are a little young for those parts. Wonder if that’s intentional on Reitman’s part to show that these really were just a bunch of green kids changing the face of TV.

 

[Dr.]

A dramatic representation of real events — which, I guess, would be called a docudrama. But "documentary" seems incorrect.

 

[Pennywise]

LaBelle and Hoffman are a little young for those parts. Wonder if that’s intentional on Reitman’s part to show that these really were just a bunch of green kids changing the face of TV.

Yeah, the casting really surprised me with how young they are. They’ll probably use makeup to make Hoffman and Labelle look older.

 

[OrbOfConfusion]

I am very curious who will be cast as our Not Ready for Prime Time Players.

 

[Sawyer]

I am very curious who will be cast as our Not Ready for Prime Time Players.

When I saw that Sennott would be involved, I initially wondered if she might be playing Gilda Radner. That would’ve been good casting tbh.

 

[Drizzle]

Yeah, the casting really surprised me with how young they are. They’ll probably use makeup to make Hoffman and Labelle look older.

Which I would understand if it was a biopic about Michaels as a young man through his career but since it's only about this specific period in time it's an odd choice to cast a 21-year old as someone who's supposed to be 10 years older than that.

In any case, I'll overlook them being too young because I thought Labelle was great in The Fabelmans and Hoffman was great in Licorice Pizza so I'm already sold on them anyway.

I am very curious who will be cast as our Not Ready for Prime Time Players.

Probably a bunch of 12 year olds with how young they're skewing for Lorne and Ebersol.

When I saw that Sennott would be involved, I initially wondered if she might be playing Gilda Radner. That would’ve been good casting tbh.

That was where my mind went too but I'm just happy she's in it. Speaking of the original cast, I think Emma Stone would make for a great Jane Curtin although I don't know if they could afford her.

 

[OrbOfConfusion]

If we're talking about that first episode specifically...they have to include Andy Kaufman, right?

 

[Drizzle]

If we're talking about that first episode specifically...they have to include Andy Kaufman, right?

100%. His sketch where he performs the Mighty Mouse theme is probably the most memorable part of that first episode apart from the "wolverines" opening with Belushi.

 

[DarkKnight88]

If we're talking about that first episode specifically...they have to include Andy Kaufman, right?

Get Jim Carrey out of retirement.

 

[Sawyer]

Would be hilarious to have his 62-year-old ass out there pretending to be Kaufman at 26.

 

[Pennywise]

Jeff Sneider reported Ella Hunt from Dickinson is in negotiations to play Gilda Radner.

 

[Sawyer]

Another young choice, although she’s a lot closer than LaBelle/Lorne Michaels. I haven’t seen any of her work, but conjuring Radner’s energy is a big ask. Can’t imagine she’d get cast if she wasn’t up for the task.

 

[Sawyer]

 

[Drizzle]

Definitely some strong resemblance there. I'm curious if this is going to be an actual real ensemble movie with focus on everyone or if it'll only focus mainly on Michaels, Ebersol and a few others.

 

[Sawyer]

 

[Pennywise]

Nice!

 

[OrbOfConfusion]

This is just wishful thinking, but once they've got the Not Ready for Prime Time Players cast, they could easily cut a promo or teaser in the style of the intro for the very first episode. I'd be disappointed if they didn't, really! Maybe it's my bias for the original cast, but you get a good lineup of actors, and while this is a documentary, there's a chance to do something really nostalgic here.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Drizzle]

This is just wishful thinking, but once they've got the Not Ready for Prime Time Players cast, they could easily cut a promo or teaser in the style of the intro for the very first episode. I'd be disappointed if they didn't, really! Maybe it's my bias for the original cast, but you get a good lineup of actors, and while this is a documentary, there's a chance to do something really nostalgic here.

I like the idea but the first episode didn't have the standard intro that would later become a staple of the show, although they could change that for the movie to embellish a bit like Hollywood often does. For the first episode all of their names were on one title card as the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players". An intro that actually showed the cast members didn't actually happen until the third season. I started watching every SNL episode from the beginning a few months back on Peacock and I was surprised to see just how different the show was in the beginning. While there were plenty of funny and memorable bits in the first two seasons, it didn't really start to resemble what it would become until season 3.

Speaking of the history of SNL, you know what would also make for an interesting movie is the behind the scenes of the sixth season, which was the first one without Lorne Michaels and was such a ****show that if it wasn't for Eddie Murphy and to a lesser extent Joe Piscopo the entire show might have been canned.

 

[Stringer]

No Garrett Morris yet?