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Saturday Night (2024 film)

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Saturday Night is a 2024 American biographical comedy-drama film, directed by Jason Reitman, about the night of the 1975 premiere of NBC's Saturday Night, later known as Saturday Night Live. The film stars an ensemble cast portraying the various Saturday Night cast and crew, led by Gabriel LaBelle as the show's creator and producer Lorne Michaels.

Saturday Night had its world premiere at the 51st Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2024, and had a limited theatrical release in the United States on September 27, 2024, before its wide release by Sony Pictures Releasing on October 11, on the 49th anniversary of the show's premiere, during the show's 50th season. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $9.7 million on a $25–30 million budget.

Plot[]

On October 11, 1975, Lorne Michaels arrives at the NBC building to prepare for the airing of the first episode of NBC's Saturday Night. The evening is fraught with accidents and dysfunctional cast and crew. Michaels's boss, Dick Ebersol warns him that David Tebet has brought executives from across the country to come and see the broadcast. Despite Tebet giving encouraging words to Michaels, Ebersol makes it known that Tebet has no faith in the show and is ready to replay a taping of an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson to fill in for time.

Garrett Morris, who has a background in operatic theater, ponders his place among a cast of comedic performers; John Belushi remains detached from everyone and constantly picks fights; Jim Henson complains over how he is being treated by the writers; the writers are at war with censor Joan Carbunkle and her demands; host George Carlin thinks the whole show is a sham; and everyone is trying to figure out what exactly the show is about. Chevy Chase confronts Milton Berle when he begins to hit on his girlfriend Jacqueline and gets told off and warned that he will become nothing. Michaels gets a call from Johnny Carson himself who gives a very unsupportive warning.

Despite Michaels warning him not to, Ebersol attempts to sell the idea of performing a sketch with a Polaroid camera for product placement purposes. Belushi becomes enraged and storms off the set, claiming that he quits. As everyone tries to look for him, assistant Neil Levy is given a joint by Paul Shaffer and panics, locking himself in a closet. He is eventually coaxed out by the cast. Michaels goes to a bar to relax where he comes across comedy writer Alan Zweibel and hires him on the spot to become a writer on the show. He, along with Gilda Radner, later find Belushi ice skating and slowly convinces him to come back to the show and sign his contract. Michaels is further motivated to continue with the show after having a brief chat with Henson.

The cast, crew, and everyone gets into place until Tebet arrives demanding that the show be shut down unless Michaels shows him exactly what the show entails. Andy Kaufman performs his Mighty Mouse skit, followed by Chase doing an impromptu version of Weekend Update using Zweibel's newly written material. An audience finally arrives and fills the venue as cast and crew finish all the sets and get into place. Michael O'Donoghue and Belushi perform the Wolverine sketch, which is well received by the audience. Chase enters the scene and announces, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"

Cast[]


  • Gabriel LaBelle as Lorne Michaels
  • Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase
  • Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner
  • Dylan O'Brien as Dan Aykroyd
  • Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman
  • Matt Wood as John Belushi
  • Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris
  • Kim Matula as Jane Curtin
  • Finn Wolfhard as an NBC page
  • Nicholas Braun as Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson
  • Cooper Hoffman as Dick Ebersol
  • Andrew Barth Feldman as Neil Levy
  • Kaia Gerber as Jacqueline Carlin
  • Rachel Sennott as Rosie Shuster
  • Tommy Dewey as Michael O'Donoghue
  • Willem Dafoe as David Tebet
  • Matthew Rhys as George Carlin
  • J. K. Simmons as Milton Berle
  • Jon Batiste as Billy Preston
  • Leander Suleiman as Anne Beatts
  • Naomi McPherson as Janis Ian
  • Taylor Gray as Al Franken
  • Nicholas Podany as Billy Crystal
  • Josh Brener as Alan Zweibel
  • Robert Wuhl as Dave Wilson
  • Tracy Letts as Herb Sargent
  • Corinne Britti as Valri Bromfield
  • Mcabe Gregg as Tom Davis
  • Brian Welch as Don Pardo
  • Paul Rust as Paul Shaffer
  • Catherine Curtin as Joan Carbunkle
  • Jef Holbrook as Editor
  • Kirsty Woodward as Audrey Dickman
  • Abraham Hsu as Leo Yoshimura
  • Rowan Joseph as Jim Fox
  • Ellen Boscov as Mrs. Kaufman
  • Billy Bryk as Carl
  • Brad Garrett as Borscht Belt comedian
  • David Michael Brown as Bernie Brillstein
  • Drew Scheid as Bob Pook


Production[]

Director/co-writer/co-producer Jason Reitman (left) and co-writer/co-producer Gil Kenan.

It was announced in May 2023 that Jason Reitman would be directing, co-writing, and producing a film about the creation of the series Saturday Night Live for Sony Pictures. He, alongside his Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) collaborator Gil Kenan, conducted interviews with the living cast and crew of the premiere season in order to better develop the screenplay, According to Reitman, he worked on the film for two decades while promoting Juno.[6]

In January 2024, Gabriel LaBelle was cast to portray Lorne Michaels, in his second major leading role following his performance as Sammy Fabelman in Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans (2022), with Cooper Hoffman, Rachel Sennott, Ella Hunt, Emily Fairn, Kim Matula, Lamorne Morris, Dylan O'Brien, Cory Michael Smith, and Matt Wood cast as Dick Ebersol, Rosie Shuster, Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, and John Belushi respectively.[7][8][9] Nicholas Braun, Tommy Dewey, and Nicholas Podany were added in March to portray Jim Henson, Michael O'Donoghue, and Billy Crystal respectively.[10] Additionally, Braun ended up cast to play Andy Kaufman as well. That role was originally supposed to be portrayed by Benny Safdie, but he had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.[11] Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Finn Wolfhard, J. K. Simmons, Billy Bryk, Joe Chrest, Taylor Gray, Mcabe Gregg, and Willem Dafoe joined the cast later that month.[12][13][14] Jon Batiste, who was hired to compose the score for the film, also appeared as Billy Preston.[15] In April, Naomi McPherson of the band Muna was cast to portray Janis Ian.[16] In June, it was reported that Leander Suleiman had been cast as writer Anne Beatts.[17]

Principal photography began in March 2024 in Atlanta and Fayetteville, Georgia, as locations, under the working title Wolverines, a reference to the very first sketch ever performed on the series.[18][19][20] Scenes were shot outside of Rockefeller Plaza on the weekend of March 9–10.[21] Filming had concluded by May.[22]

Music[]

Main article: Saturday Night (soundtrack)

Release[]

On July 30, it was announced the title was changed from the working title of SNL 1975 to Saturday Night, which was the original title of the show during its first season, since there was already a competing show at the time on ABC called Saturday Night Live with Howard Cosell. It was also given the release date of October 11, 2024, 49 years to the day that SNL premiered on NBC.[23]

The film premiered at the 51st Telluride Film Festival and was selected to screen at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.[24][25][26]

Shortly after its Telluride premiere, Sony Pictures decided to make some changes to the film's release schedule, pivoting to a limited theatrical release starting in Los Angeles, New York City, and Toronto on September 27, 2024, expanding to more cities on October 4, and then a nationwide release on October 11.[23]

Reception[]

portrayed SNL producer , earning praise for his performance.

Gabriel LaBelle portrayed SNL producer Lorne Michaels, earning praise for his performance.

Box office[]

In the United States, the film made $270,487 from five theaters in its opening weekend; its per-screen average of $54,097 was the second-best limited opening of the year, behind Kinds of Kindness.[27][28] In its second weekend, it made $270,955 from 21 theaters.[29] In its third weekend, the film expanded to 2,304 theaters and made $3.4 million, finishing in seventh.[30] Anthony D'Alessandro of Deadline Hollywood argued that the film failed to find an audience despite positive reviews, similar to Sony's Dumb Money (which made $3.3 million when it expanded wide in 2023).[31] The following weekend the film made $1.8 million (a drop of 47%), finishing in ninth.[32]

Critical response[]

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 78% of 7 critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 204/10. On the website, the critics' consensus reads, "Jazzed up by an excellent ensemble that captures the essence if not exact likeness of SNL's original cast and crew, Saturday Night is a frenetic and nostalgic celebration of one of showbiz's most auspicious debuts." Using a weighted average calculator, Metacritic assigned the film a score of 63 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it an 82% overall positive score, with 63% saying they would definitely recommend it.[31]

Peter Debruge of Variety gave the film a positive review, stating that director Reitman "finds the right ensemble to capture the lunacy from which SNL was born" and calling the film "a rowdy, delectably profane backstage homage."[33] Gabriel LaBelle was singled out for praise by several outlets for his portrayal of a young Lorne Michaels, earning plaudits from Maureen Lee Lenker from Entertainment Weekly, for granting "Michaels a clarity of purpose, an unwavering conviction, and a harried sense that he's barely holding things together".[34] Gregory Ellwood from The Playlist lauded several cast members, including LaBelle for "masterfully carrying the film" and especially Dylan O'Brien for being "simply transformative" as Dan Aykroyd in "an eye-opening turn".[35]

Conversely, Benjamin Lee of The Guardian gave the film one out of five stars, calling the film an "unfunny misfire" and a "dull and self-indulgent mess".[36] David Ehrlich from IndieWire stated that the film "has a lot of business in lieu of a story, and there's so much going on that it quickly starts to feel like nothing".[37]

Accolades[]

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
Hollywood Music in Media Awards November 20, 2024 Best Original Score – Independent Film Jon Batiste Pending [38]

References[]

  1. ↑ Saturday Night.
  2. ↑ Malhotra, Rahul (2024-09-29). 'Saturday Night' Nearly Breaks a Domestic Box Office Record in Debut Weekend (en).
  3. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 9, 2024). 'Terrifier 3' Looks To Slash 'Joker: Folie à Deux' At Weekend Box Office With $11M+ Opening – Preview. Deadline Hollywood.
  4. ↑ Saturday Night.
  5. ↑ Saturday Night – Financial Information.
  6. ↑ Jason Reitman To Direct Movie Based On Behind-The-Scenes Accounts Of 'Saturday Night Live's 1975 Opening Night For Sony; Gil Kenan Co-Writing With Reitman (May 1, 2023).
  7. ↑ The Fablemans Star Gabriel LaBelle To Play Lorne Michaels In Sony's SNL 1975, Cooper Hoffman And Rachel Sennott Also Join Ensemble (January 19, 2024).
  8. ↑ 'SNL 1975' Movie Finds Its Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman & Gilda Radner (January 26, 2024).
  9. ↑ 'SNL 1975' Finds Its Garrett Morris, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase And John Belushi (January 30, 2024).
  10. ↑ SNL 1975 Origin Movie Finds Its Jim Henson, Michael O'Donoghue And Billy Crystal (March 7, 2024).
  11. ↑ Riccardo, Nick (2024-07-26). Report: Nicholas Braun Is Playing Both Jim Henson and Andy Kaufman in 'SNL 1975' (en-US).
  12. ↑ 'SNL 1975' Origin Movie Adds Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber And Finn Wolfhard To Cast (March 12, 2024).
  13. ↑ J.K. Simmons, Billy Bryk & Joe Chrest Among Final Additions To Jason Reitman's 'SNL 1975' (March 25, 2024).
  14. ↑ SNL 1975: Willem Dafoe To Play David Tebet In Origin Movie (March 29, 2024).
  15. ↑ Jon Batiste to Score, Appear in Jason Reitman Film SNL 1975 (Exclusive) (March 28, 2024).
  16. ↑ SNL 1975: Muna's Naomi McPherson to Make Acting Debut With Jason Reitman Film (Exclusive) (April 12, 2024).
  17. ↑ Grobar, Matt (2024-06-14). Leander Suleiman Joins 'SNL 1975' As Comedy Writer Anne Beatts (en-US).
  18. ↑ Seeking Core Background for Sony Pictures Feature Film SNL 1975 (January 28, 2024).
  19. ↑ Production Weekly – Issue 1391 – Thursday, February 29, 2024 / 178 Listings – 38 Pages (February 29, 2024).
  20. ↑ Now Filming In Georgia.
  21. ↑ Finn Wolfhard Talks Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, The Grandeur of Stranger Things 5 and SNL 1975 (March 13, 2024).
  22. ↑ Template:Cite Instagram
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 D'Alessandro, Anthony (July 30, 2024). Jason Reitman's 'Saturday Night' Will Go Platform Before Wide Fall Expansion – Update. Deadline.
  24. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (13 August 2024). TIFF Adds 20 More Movies To Lineup With 'Saturday Night', Jacob Elordi & Daisy Edgar-Jones' 'On Swift Horses', Max Minghella's 'Shell', 'Megalopolis' & More.
  25. ↑ Hammond, Pete (29 August 2024). Telluride Film Festival Lineup Includes 'Saturday Night', 'The Piano Lesson', 'Conclave' & 'Nickel Boys' World Premieres.
  26. ↑ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Tapp, Tom (September 10, 2024). "Saturday Night Premiere: Red Carpet Photos Of The SNL Movie's Cast". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation. Archived from the original on September 19, 2024. Retrieved September 19, 2024.
  27. ↑ Domestic 2024 Weekend 39.
  28. ↑ Goldsmith, Jill (September 29, 2024). Jason Reitman's Saturday Night Pops In Limited Opening That's Best In Months, In Top Two For Year – Specialty Box Office.
  29. ↑ Domestic 2024 Weekend 40.
  30. ↑ Domestic 2024 Weekend 41.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 13, 2024). Clown Vs. Clown: Terrifier 3 Shows Teeth With $18M+ As Joker 2 Posts Record Drop For DC Character Pic; Awards Season Darlings Shriek – Sunday Box Office.
  32. ↑ D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 20, 2024). Smile 2 Happier With $23M Opening; A24's We Live In Time Making Dime With $4M+, Anora Wows With Massive $90K Theater Average – Sunday Box Officee.
  33. ↑ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Debruge, Peter (September 1, 2024). "Saturday Night Review: Jason Reitman Finds the Right Ensemble to Capture the Lunacy From Which SNL Was Born". Variety. ISSN 0042-2738. OCLC 60626328. Archived from the original on September 7, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2024.
  34. ↑ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Lenker, Maureen Lee (September 3, 2024). Gomez, Patrick (ed.). "Saturday Night is an adrenaline-fueled nostalgia trip with pitch-perfect casting". Entertainment Weekly. ISSN 1049-0434. OCLC 21114137. Retrieved November 12, 2024. The entire ensemble understands the assignment, but if the movie belongs to anyone it's Gabriel LaBelle as SNL creator and producer Lorne Michaels.
  35. ↑ Ellwood, Gregory (2024-09-01). Saturday Night Review: Jason Reitman's Fascinating Countdown To The Launch Of A Cultural Institution [Telluride]. “Shockingly, O'Brien is simply transformative as Aykroyd. An eye-opening turn based on his previous work.”
  36. ↑ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Lee, Benjamin (September 12, 2024). "Saturday Night review – tedious SNL origins tale is an unfunny misfire". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved October 20, 2024.
  37. ↑ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Ehrlich, David (September 1, 2024). "Saturday Night Review: A Brilliant Ensemble Cast Is Wasted on 109 Minutes of Tedious 'SNL' Cosplay". IndieWire. Retrieved November 12, 2024. Cobbled together from a 100 contradicting stories of what happened that night, Reitman's film spins further and further out of control as it goes along,…
  38. ↑ Hollywood Music in Media Awards Noms Led by 'Emilia Pérez' and 'Blitz,' With Elton John, Hans Zimmer and Scores More Among the Nominees. Hollywood Music in Media Awards (November 6, 2024).

External links[]

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