‘Saturday Night Live’: Movie About the Show’s First Episode in the Works

A movie about the making of the first Saturday Night Live episode is now in development. Ghostbusters: Afterlife director Jason Reitman will direct the film and write the script with Gil Kenan. It’s unclear who will play members of the Not Ready for Prime Time Players in the film.

The entire movie will be set on Oct. 11, 1975, leading up to the moment Chevy Chase announced, “Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night!” for the first time, reports Deadline. Reitman and Kenan conducted interviews with the living cast, writers, and crew members for the script. The movie is set up at Sony Pictures and will be produced by Kenan, Reitman, Jason Blumenfeld, and Erica Mills. It’s not known if SNL creator Lorne Michaels will be directly involved in any way.

The first episode of SNL was hosted by comedian George Carlin, with musical performances from Billy Preston and Janis Ian. (Carlin only delivered monologues throughout the episode, including the classic “Football-Baseball.”) The first group of Not Ready for Prime Time Players included Chase, John Belushi, Jane Curtin, Garrett Morris, Michael O’Donoghue, and Gilda Radner. George Coe was a member of the cast only for the first episode. Aykroyd, Chase, Curtin, and Morris are the only surviving members of the original cast. Aykroyd worked with Reitman on Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Reitman is now working on the sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife for Sony. During CinemaCon last month, Reitman and stars McKenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, and Carrie Coon teased the movie via video from the set. The producer didn’t have any new footage but confirmed that the film’s setting is New York, where the first two Ghostbusters movies were set. Kenan is directing the sequel, which is set to hit theaters on Dec. 20.

Reitman, whose father is the late director Ivan Reitman, earned Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay for his 2009 hit Up in the Air. His other films include Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Young Adult, Labor Day, and The Front Runner. He also co-produced Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash and Karyn Kusama’s Jennifer’s Body.

While Reitman preps a movie about SNL‘s past, the show’s current season came to a screeching halt this week. There were plans for Pete Davidson, Kiernan Culkin, and Jennifer Coolidge to host the last three episodes of Season 48 this week. However, all three episodes were canceled due to the writers’ strike. Fans can watch almost every SNL episode (including the first one) on Peacock.