Jon Batiste to compose the score for and star in SNL 1975

Singer-songwriter Jon Batiste has signed up as score composer and actor for Jason Reitman‘s upcoming film, which chronicles the behind-closed-doors events leading up to the Saturday Night Live premiere. Besides composing the score for the film, Batiste will appear in it as singer-keyboardist Billy Preston, the first guest of the show from the music industry. The film with the working title SNL 1975 stars Gabriel LaBelle as Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, Rachel Sennott as SNL writer Rosie Shuster, and Cooper Hoffman as erstwhile NBC executive Dick Ebersol.

Gil Kenan and Reitman wrote the SNL 1975 script based on the interviews they had with the show's scribes, cast, and crew regarding its launch almost 50 years ago. Reitman, Kenan, Peter Rice, and  Jason Blumenfeld are producing the film, while JoAnn Perritano and Erica Mills are its executive producers.