Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!
Vanity Fair shared the first-look images at director Jason Reitman’s upcoming Saturday Night Live film on Wednesday, giving fans a look at the star-studded cast in costume as their real-live counterparts. The film, previously titled SNL 1975, recounts the first-ever episode of the comedy sketch show, which aired on Oct. 11, 1975.
The Fabelmans star Gabriel LaBelle stars as SNL’s creative mastermind Lorne Michaels, alongside the original cast of “Not Ready for Prime Time Players”: Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Matt Wood as John Belushi, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman and Tommy Dewey as head writer Michael O’Donoghue.
The film plays out in real-time, beginning at 10 p.m. on the night of SNL‘s first broadcast and the culminating episode — a tension-packed look at a tumultuous experiment that ultimately made television history.
“It’s a thriller-comedy, if you can call that a genre,” Reitman told Vanity Fair. “This is about not only the first seven actors, but the writers, the art department, and everybody who came together at the last second to change television. The format was unlike anything anyone had ever seen before.”
The first-look photos recreate an iconic shot of the cast, as well as giving a look at some drama behind-the-scenes, from Belushi’s volatile behavior to Chase’s tensions with Michaels.
The film also stars Cooper Hoffman as NBC executive Dick Ebersol, Rachel Sennott as SNL writer Rosie Shuster, Finn Wolfhard as an NBC Page, Nicholas Braun as Jim Henson, Jon Batiste as the episode’s first musical guest Billy Preston, Naomi McPherson as the second musical guest Janis Ian, Kaia Gerber as Jacqueline Carlin, Nicholas Podany as Billy Crystal, Willem Dafoe as David Tebet, J.K. Simmons as Milton Berle, Joe Chrest as Herb Sargent, Taylor Gray as Al Franken, Mcabe Gregg as Tom Davis, Andrew Barth Feldman as Neil Levy, and Billy Bryk in an undisclosed role.
Saturday Night is in theaters Oct. 11.
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