The mercurial man behind Saturday Night Live is getting the documentary treatment in a surprise film announced Friday.
Lorne, Deadline reports, will hit U.S. theaters in just two months on April 17, and promises “unprecedented access” to SNL creator Lorne Michaels.
The film is directed by Oscar, Grammy, and Emmy-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville, known for the Mr. Rogers documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, the Anthony Bourdain documentary Roadrunner, and this month’s Man on the Run about Paul McCartney. Neville won the Best Documentary Oscar for 2014’s 20 Feet From Stardom.
The announcement comes after SNL’s 50th anniversary celebrations, which coincided with a docuseries (produced by Neville), a documentary, and a biography about Michaels.
SNL alums who will appear in Lorne include Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, Conan O’Brien, John Mulaney, Andy Samberg, Chris Rock, and more, the site reports.
Morrison, who wrote the 2025 biography Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live, revealed on the Fly on the Wall podcast last year why Michaels has chosen to remain out of the spotlight despite the massive cultural influence of Saturday Night Live.
After the release of the Jason Reitman film Saturday Night, which fictionalizes the night of the series’ first ever broadcast in 1975, with Michaels portrayed by Gabriel LaBelle, “He said, ‘I just feel like I’ve lost control of my life’” because the film was “the beginning of his anonymity being blown in a way.”
Other revelations from the book include Michaels’ “Darwinian” management style, as Alec Baldwin put it, and his efforts to keep the show from veering too far left politically.
But Lorne is teasing an even closer look at the still mostly unknown show boss. “He does feel, I mean, even to some extent, with a book, it’s just like he’s kind of stepping out,” Morrison added last year.
SNL alum Dana Carvey surmised at the time that Michaels will be “kind of a little bit relieved” when the SNL50 celebrations take the spotlight off of him. But Lorne’s release will likely be of little help on that front.
