Jason Reitman is making a movie about the first-ever broadcast of Saturday Night Live.
Reitman penned the script with Ghostbusters: Afterlife co-writer Gil Kenan. Per Variety, the screenplay draws the pair’s "series of interviews with living cast, writers and crew members from the original production."
Saturday Night Live, created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol, premiered on October 11, 1975 on NBC with legendary comedian George Carlin as the host and Janis Ian and Billy Preston as the musical guests. Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Michael O’Donoghue, Gilda Radner, and George Coe made up the original cast for this episode. The show was initially conceived as high-concept comedy sketch show, not only fill the Saturday night slot on NBC, but to attract 18-to-34-year-old viewers to the network.
SNL is now on its forty-eighth season, with over 900 episodes broadcast across five decades. Several of the recurring sketches have been made into spin-off feature films including Coneheads, The Blues Brothers, MacGruber, Superstar, Wayne's World, and A Night at the Roxbury. The show has also received over 300 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, the most received by any television program in history.
Reitman most recently directed Ghostbusters: Afterlife and wrote and produced the untitled sequel, with Kenan taking over the director's chair.
Reitman's Saturday Night Live movie does not yet have a release date. For more, check out our list of the most exciting upcoming movies in 2023 and beyond, or, skip straight to the good stuff with our list of movie release dates.
