Sony's Saturday Night Live Movie Already Has An Incredible Cast Lined Up
The late night sketch comedy series "Saturday Night Live" is still going strong. The series is currently in the middle of its 49th season, and word on the street is that there's quite the celebration around the corner for the show's 50th anniversary, which will come around this fall. There have been rumblings that series creator and longtime executive producer Lorne Michaels may step down from his post at "SNL" when the 50th season is over, but there hasn't been any confirmation just yet, even though Tina Fey seems to be primed to take the gig if that happens. However, there's another big "SNL" event coming soon too, in the form of a movie about the show's premiere on October 11, 1975.
Last spring, Sony Pictures set director Jason Reitman ("Up in the Air," "Ghostbusters: Afterlife") to direct "SNL 1975," a movie that will chronicle the real-time, behind-the-scenes chaos and miraculous magic leading right up to the show's debut on NBC. Reitman also co-wrote the script with "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" director and co-writer Gil Kenan, with the duo pulling from "an extensive series of interviews" done with the surviving members of the show's stars, writers, and crew, and now they've started assembling their cast.
Rather than starting with the actors who would portray beloved "SNL" comedians like John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, and Laraine Newman, Deadline reveals that the filmmakers have honed in on who will be playing "SNL" creator Lorne Michaels himself, as well as fellow producer Dick Ebersol and writer Rosie Shuster. For this trio, they've landed three of the most talented rising stars working today.
Gabriel LaBelle is Lorne Michaels
"The Fabelmans" star Gabriel LaBelle has landed the role of Lorne Michaels. In the Best Picture-nominated 2022 film, LaBelle played a teen having a family crisis while following through on his aspirations to be a filmmaker. The character was based on the formative years of "The Fabelmans" director, the legendary Steven Spielberg. So LaBelle will be going from playing one of the most respected filmmakers of all time to portraying one of the most groundbreaking television creators in the history of the medium. That's not a bad track record for a blossoming career. Considering everyone at "SNL" has their own impersonation of Lorne Michaels, it'll be interesting to see how LaBelle approaches the role.
Meanwhile, the role of Dick Ebersol, a sports television producer who would infamously take over "SNL" for a brief time in the 1980s, is going to Cooper Hoffman. Son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, the actor made an impressive breakthrough performance in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Licorice Pizza," which earned him an award from the National Board of Review. Surely this will be another performance to pay attention to in the actor's growing filmography.
Finally, "Bottoms" writer, producer, and star Rachel Sennott has landed the role of Rosie Shuster, a key writer in the early days of "SNL," in addition to being responsible for memorable sketches like the Killer Bees and Gilda Rander bits like Roseanne Roseannadanna and Baba Wawa, a spoof of TV personality Barbara Walters, both of which were written with fellow writer Anne Beatts. Along with Shuster's contributions to "SNL," she was also married to Lorne Michaels from 1970 to 1981.
With these key roles squared away, I'm now curious who will be called in to play the famed "SNL" ensemble cast known as the Not Ready for Primetime Players. Will we get equally famous up-and-comers to play these familiar faces from comedy history, or will Reitman opt to find comedic talent who might have a trajectory similar to the comedians they'll be playing? Honestly, we're not even sure how big of a part the cast will play. Obviously they'll be floating around the set, but if the majority of the movie focuses on the behind-the-scenes chaos, these well-known names may only make passing appearances. Hopefully we'll hear more soon, so stay tuned.