Jason Reitman’s ‘Saturday Night’ Trailer Turns the First ‘SNL’ Taping Into an Edge-of-Your-Seat Nail-Biter | Video
Live from New York, it’s a very chaotic “Saturday Night.”
Jason Reitman’s new film, which dramatizes the airing of the first-ever episode of “Saturday Night Live” back in 1975, hits theaters on Oct. 11, courtesy of Columbia Pictures, just as the NBC show celebrates its 50th anniversary season. But you can at least get a taste of the mayhem, thanks to a brand-new trailer, which you can watch below.
The trailer certainly captures the franticness of those opening night jitters (perhaps fueled by substances both legal and illegal). Reitman recently described the movie to Vanity Fair as “a thriller-comedy, if you can call that a genre.” And you definitely get that vibe, especially since, in the same article, Reitman admitted that it was essentially playing out in real time, covering the 90 minutes before the show went live — and changed television forever.
It’s also very fun to see all of the young actors that Reitman has cast as the famous “SNL” alums, led by Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels and Cooper Hoffman as NBC executive Dick Ebersol. In front of the camera, Dylan O’Brien plays Dan Aykroyd, Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman and Nicholas Braun as Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson (yes, Henson had Muppet-less segments on the first season of the show).
But the fun doesn’t stop there, as you can briefly glimpse in the trailer, Willem Dafoe plays executive David Tebet, J.K. Simmons is Milton Berle and Matthew Rhys is George Carlin. Meanwhile, Jon Batiste plays Billy Preston, the first episode’s musical guest, and also provides the film’s score as dear Finn Wolfhard plays a very put-upon NBC page.
The movie was written by Reitman and frequent collaborator Gil Kenan (they both wrote “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” which was released earlier this year) and produced by Reitman, Kenan, Jason Blumenfeld and Peter Rice.
“Saturday Night” is barreling towards an awards-corridor release, despite only starting filming in March 2024. But it indeed seems to have all of the makings of a major contender — a bright young cast, a filmmaker that the Academy loves (Reitman has been nominated for Best Director twice) and an undeniably entertaining, based-on-a-true-story hook.
“Saturday Night” hits theaters on Oct. 11.
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