J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) has joined the cast of director Jason Reitman’s Sony Pictures’ film SNL 1975, which is based on real-life behind the scenes accounts of the opening night of Saturday Night Live. Other new cast members include Billy Bryk (Friendship), Joe Chrest (Stranger Things), Taylor Gray (Star Wars: Rebels) and Mcabe Gregg (Teenage Badass).
Simmons will take on the role of comedian Milton Berle, with Chrest as Weekend Update co-creator Herb Sargent. Gray and Gregg will play Al Franken and Tom Davis, the SNL writer-performers of duo Franken & Davis. There are no details as to who Bryk is playing.
They join the previously cast Gabriel LaBelle (The Fabelmans ) as Lorne Michaels, along with Cooper Hoffman, Rachel Sennott, Ella Hunt, Lamorne Morris, Dylan O’Brien, Nicholas Braun, Finn Wolfhard and Kaia Gerber.
SNL premiered on October 11th, 1975 and this film “is the true story of what happened that night behind the scenes in the moments leading up to the first broadcast of SNL. The chaos and magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, as we count down the minutes in real time to the infamous words, Live From New York, it’s Saturday Night.”
Reitman and Gil Kenan wrote the script after conducting interviews with all living cast, writers, and crew of SNL.
Source: Deadline