Jason Reitman’s Film Focuses on ‘SNL’ Premiere

Debut evening for Saturday Night Live It was no walk in the park, as you can see in the trailer for Jason Reitman’s upcoming film about the early days of the NBC sketch show.

Sony Pictures released the first trailer Saturday night ahead of its October 11 theatrical release. Reitman helms the film, which focuses on behind-the-scenes moments leading up to SNL-The program premiered on October 11, 1975.

The trailer highlights the chaos that took place in the final 90 minutes leading up to the first episode, including a tense exchange between series creator Lorne Michaels (played by Gabriel LaBelle) and NBC executive Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman).

Ebersol says in the footage, “Lorne, 90 minutes of live television from a bunch of 20-somethings who’ve never produced anything? Do you ever stop and wonder why they said yes to a counterculture show starring complete strangers, with no narrative and even less structure? They want you to fail.”

This prompts Lorne to reply, “We just have to get on the air.”

Reitman and Gil Kenan wrote the script based on interviews with live cast, writers and crew about the series premiere, which is now heading into its 50th season. Reitman, Kenan, Jason Blumenfeld and Peter Rice are producing the film, which was previously known under the working title SNL-1975Executive producers are Erica Mills and JoAnn Perritano.

Presenting SNL-The inaugural cast includes Dylan O’Brien (as Dan Aykroyd), Lamorne Morris (Garrett Morris), Cory Michael Smith (Chevy Chase), Matt Wood (John Belushi), Ella Hunt (Gilda Radner), Emily Fairn (Laraine Newman) and Kim Matula (Jane Curtin).

The cast also includes Willem Dafoe (David Tebet), Nicholas Braun (Jim Henson), Matthew Rhys (George Carlin), Kaia Gerber (Jacqueline Carlin), JK Simmons (Milton Berle), Jon Batiste (Billy Preston), Andrew Barth Feldman (Neil Levy), Naomi McPherson (Janis Ian) and Finn Wolfhard as an NBC reporter.

In a recent article for Vanity fairLaBelle — known for his starring role in The Fabelman Family — discussed his approach to playing Michaels. The actor noted that Michaels “started (SNL) when he was 30. Now he’s 80 and has been doing it for 50 years. Nobody knows what to do when they start.”