See the first footage of Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Dylan O’Brien, Willem Dafoe, J.K. Simmons, Jon Batiste, Kaia Gerber, Lamorne Morris, and more in Studio 8H.
It’s 10 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 11, 1975, and the clock is ticking.
The first trailer for Saturday Night Live, Jason Reitman’s biopic about the show, captures the intensity of the ninety minutes before its premiere. The trailer teases the movie’s younger takes on beloved SNL characters, including Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris), Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), John Belushi (Matt Wood), Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith), and, of course, the man in charge, Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle).
Cast of ‘Saturday Night’. Sony Pictures Entertainment/YouTube
The first scene of the trailer features Finn Wolfhard, who co-starred with Jason Reitman on two Ghostbusters films, as an NBC page who is unsuccessfully attempting to give away tickets for the show is first taping. He pleads with passersby, “Free comedy show, plenty of seats.” “Plenty of tickets left guys, free show! F—’s sake.”
Then, we get our first glimpse of LaBelle, who is frantically attempting to get past 30 Rock security. “Look, my name is Lorne Michaels, I’m the producer of Saturday Night,” he says. “The entire evening?” asks a security guard. “Yeah, the whole night.”
TRAILER BELOW
Announcer Don Pardo in Studio 8H has trouble pronouncing a certain name when reading the cast list. “Chevy Chase! Gilda Radner! Dan Ayekuh — how the f— do you pronounce this?”
The conversation between Michales and NBC executive Dick Ebersol (Cooper Hoffman), who discusses whether or not the show will continue, drives the majority of the rest of the trailer. “You know, I was thinking: why don’t we punt? Next Saturday, we should run the dress rehearsal and try to reclaim the victory,” advises Ebersol. “We can’t, Dick, it’s a live show,” Michaels responds. “We’re just not ready,” Dick says. “It doesn’t matter that we’re ready, it matters that it’s 11:30. That’s when we go on,” Michaels insists.
NBC executive David Tebet, played by Willem Dafoe, also intervenes to criticize Michaels. “Look around, Lorne: you haven’t locked a script, your crew is in open rebellion,” he says. Fireworks burst on set, Jim Henson (Nicholas Braun) announces that Big Bird has been hanged in his office, and host George Carlin (Matthew Rhys) cusses out the crew. We also catch a glimpse of Milton Berle (J.K. Simmons), Jacqueline Carlin (Kaia Gerber), Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennott), and musical guest Billy Preston (Jon Batiste, who also wrote the film’s soundtrack).
Ebersol keeps attempting to reason with Michaels. “NBC makes more money playing reruns of The Tonight Show,” he says. “NBC is lucky to have something as relevant as this show,” Michaels shoots back. “Lorne, they don’t even want it!” Ebersol argues. “That’s logical, Dick, that’s why we’re paying us all to be here.”
Rachel Sennott and Gabriel LaBelle in ‘Saturday Night’. Sony Pictures
Breaking glass, lights falling, Andy Kaufman (also Braun) practicing his Mighty Mouse lip sync, Radner and Aykroyd jokingly dry-humping in front of the crew, Chase physically abusing Belushi in the dressing room, Michael O’Donoghue (Tommy Dewey) burning a script in an office, Lorne tearing apart the scheduling bulletin board, and more chaos behind the scenes are all depicted during their argument.
The show is not positioned for success, as Dick terrifyingly suggests. “I mean, we are 90 minutes of live television by a group of 20 year olds who have never made anything,” he says. “Did you ever stop and wonder why they said ‘Yes’? A counterculture program with no storyline and even less structure that stars complete unknowns? They want you to fail.”
“We just have to make it to air,” Lorne concludes.
Saturday Night hits theaters Oct. 11, exactly 49 years after the first SNL broadcast. Watch the first trailer above.
by EW
