With Saturday Night Live celebrating its 50th season in fall 2024, the long-running sketch comedy series is planning to go all out. Tangentially, the occasion is also going to be celebrated on the big screen, with Jason Reitman directing a 2024 new movie about the very first episode of SNL, which is titled Saturday Night.
SNL has a long history of movies, but to date, it has been movies based on their popular sketches/characters; think Wayne's World, Superstar and Night at the Roxbury. Saturday Night is instead going to focus on what went on behind the scenes to get the first episode to air.
Here is everything that you need to know about Saturday Night.
Saturday Night release date
Saturday Night is now playing in select theaters, expanding its reach to additional markets on Friday, October 4. It debuts in theaters all across the US on October 11 (the 49th anniversary of Saturday Night Live's first episode).
According to reports, Saturday Night is not expected to hit UK movie theaters until January 2025.
Saturday Night cast
The group of comedians and entertainment figures that were involved with the first ever episode of Saturday Night Live is legendary: Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Laraine Newman, Michael O'Donoghue, Gilda Radner, Andy Kaufman, George Carlin, Jim Henson, Dick Ebersol, Lorne Michaels and more. Well, Saturday Night has rounded up an impressive cast of young and established actors to portray the main Saturday Night Live players, here's a rundown of the announced cast:
- Gabriel LaBelle (The Fabelmans) as Lorne Michaels
- Dylan O'Brien (The Maze Runner) as Dan Aykroyd
- Cory Michael Smith (May December) as Chevy Chase
- Rachel Sennott (Bottoms) as Rosie Shuster
- Lamorne Morris (Fargo season 5) as Garrett Morris
- Nicholas Braun (Succession) as Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman
- Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things) as an NBC page
- Jon Batiste (American Symphony) as Billy Preston
- Ella Hunt (Horizon: An American Saga) as Gilda Radner
- Emily Fairn (The Responder) as Laraine Newman
- Cooper Hoffman (Licorice Pizza) as Dick Ebersol
- Andrew Barth Feldman (No Hard Feelings) as Neil Levy
- Musician Naomi McPherson as Janis Ian
- Willem Dafoe (Kinds of Kindness) as David Tebet
- JK Simmons (Red One) as Milton Berle
- Kaia Gerber (Palm Royale) as Jacqueline Carlin
Vanity Fair has exclusively shared the first looks at Saturday Night. In addition to giving us a first look at the cast as their SNL counterparts, it also confirms that Nicholas Braun is in fact pulling double duty, playing both Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman.
‘Saturday Night’ tells not just Lorne Michaels’ story, but virtually everyone’s from that opening night cast and crew. “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,”… pic.twitter.com/9Iqd5m6F5KAugust 7, 2024
Saturday Night plot
Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan wrote the script for Saturday Night based on interviews that they did with living cast members, writers and crew members from the first ever Saturday Night Live episode. Here is the movie's synopsis:
Saturday Night is based on a true story and follows the humor, chaos and magic of what happened behind the scenes in the 90 minutes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live.
Saturday Night trailer
Watch the trailer for Saturday Night, which preview the tense and hilarious situation as Lorne Michaels and company prepare for the first ever episode of Saturday Night Live. Watch the trailer right here:
Also check out this special behind the scenes video:
Saturday Night reviews
You can now read What to Watch's Saturday Night review to find out why we think it's the best Jason Reitman movie in some time and which actors among the giant ensemble stand out.
What's the consensus take on Saturday Night? As of October 3, the movie has a "Fresh" score of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Jason Reitman movies
In addition to co-writing the screenplay, Reitman is also directing Saturday Night. Reitman is a four-time Oscar nominee, two of which are Best Directing nominations for his movies Juno and Up in the Air. Here's a complete look at Reitman’s filmography to date:
- Thank You for Smoking (2005)
- Juno (2007)
- Up in the Air (2010)
- Young Adult (2011)
- Labor Day (2013)
- Men, Women & Children (2014)
- Tully (2018)
- The Front Runner (2018)
- Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
