Jon Batiste Scores 'SNL 1975' To Play Billy Preston
The Oscar and Grammy winner takes on composing the film and the role of the show’s first musical guest
This gig ain’t nothing from nothing. Academy Award and Grammy-winning artist Jon Batiste is pulling double duty for Jason Reitman’s film working under the title SNL 1975. The Sony Pictures film chronicles the behind the scenes chaos leading up to the October 11, 1975 premiere of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live. Not only is Batiste composing the score, but he will play the show’s first musical guest, Billy Preston.
Preston, as his own artist is a two-time Grammy winner known for such songs as “Will It Go Round in Circles” and “With You, I’m Born Again”, as well as "Nothing from Nothing", which was the first song he performed in Saturday Night Live’s first episode, following it up with "Fancy Lady". His work with the Beatles is so known that he was commonly considered the “Fifth Beatle”, with his extensive work and presence on “Get Back” during the famous sessions earning him a co-performer credit for the track. He also co-wrote “You Are So Beautiful”, and worked with Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones. His induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame came in 2021, 15 years after his 2006 passing at the age of 59.
Bastiste is a five-time Grammy winner, winning Album of the Year for We Are, released in 2021. He won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Score for Pixar's Soul with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. He subsequently earned a Best Original Song nomination having co-written "It Never Went Away" for his own Netflix documentary American Symphony, focused on him and wife Suleika Jaouad. His seventh studio album, World Music Radio, was released in August. As his success began to build, he left his perch as bandleader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after seven years. Colbert is himself a former Saturday Night Live writer, a gig that allowed him to take on the role of Gary in The Ambiguously Gay Duo episodes of the show’s Saturday TV Funhouse segment. There were eight instances from the 1996-1997 to 1998-1999 seasons, with four subsequent starting the following May with the last being in May 2011. He also has a cameo in a November ‘96 pretape.
With Gabriel LaBelle as creator Lorne Michaels, SNL 1975 stars include Lamorne Morris as Garrett Morris, Dylan O’Brien as Dan Aykroyd, Cory Michael Smith as Chevy Chase, Matt Wood as John Belushi, Ella Hunt as Gilda Radner, Emily Fairn as Laraine Newman, and Kim Matula as Jane Curtin, as well as Nicholas Braun as either Jim Henson (as reported) or Andy Kaufman (as spotted), Taylor Gray and Mcabe Gregg as Al Franken and Tom Davis as far as onscreen non-cast talent for those early years, with Nicholas Podany as almost-onscreen but still-future cast member Billy Crystal.
Reitman is not only directing but teams again with his Ghostbusters: Afterlife co-writer (and Frozen Empire director) Gil Kenan for a script based on an extensive series of interviews they conducted with all surviving cast, writers, and crew. It is also part of their overall production deal with the studio. They produce with Jason Blumenfeld and Peter Rice, while Erica Mills and Joann Perritano are executive producers.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter