Jason Reitman to direct Saturday Night Live movie about the very first show

We’re just two years away from celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Saturday Night Live, the late-night sketch comedy series which has launched a thousand careers, prompted millions of laughs, and been a fixture of television for longer than many of us have been alive. The very first Saturday Night Live broadcast took place on the evening of October 11, 1975, and Deadline reports that Jason Reitman is developing a movie to tell the behind-the-scenes story of that night.

Jason Reitman will direct the Saturday Night Live movie, which he is also co-writing with Gil Kenan. “The film will be set on Oct. 11th, 1975, where a ferocious troupe of young comedians and writers changed television forever,” reads Deadline’s description. “This is the true story of what happened that night behind the scenes in the moments leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. The chaos and magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, as we countdown the minutes in real time to the infamous words, ‘Live From New York, it’s Saturday Night.’“

The screenplay is based on countless interviews which Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan conducted with all of the living cast, writers, and crew who were involved in the original production.

Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan are currently in production on the Ghostbusters: Afterlife sequel, which Kenan is directing. “It’s an absolute honor to pick up the proton pack and step behind the camera for the next chapter of the Spengler family saga,” Kenan said upon taking the gig. “I just wish I could go back to 1984 and tell the kid in the sixth row of the Mann Valley West that one day he was going to get to direct a Ghostbusters film.” Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard have returned to star alongside Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd. The sequel will also see the return of Ernie Hudson as Dr. Winston Zeddemore as well as another character from the original movie who I didn’t anticipate seeing again. The project was recently teased at CinemaCon, with the cast and crew sharing a video from the set.