Is there a more discussed figure in the comedy world, across 50 years of television, than Lorne Michaels? Sure, the Saturday Night Live creator can be pretty taciturn in his own right. But there have been untold interviews (and impressions), dozens of books, and one whole-ass Jason Reitman movie about him, sketching out a pretty solid portrait of the highly reserved oddball who’s steered the ship of mainstream American comedy for the past five decades. It raises a pretty basic question: Is there room for any more conversation about Michaels?
Focus Features intends to find out, announcing today that it’s picked up Lorne, a new documentary from Morgan Neville, the Oscar winner behind such “Let’s try to get inside a famous culture figure’s head” docs as Won’t You Be My Neighbor, Steve! Martin, and Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain. (Michaels is still alive, so Neville luckily won’t need to use AI to recreate anybody’s voice this time—although given that basically everyone who’s ever gone through the SNL meatgrinder supposedly has a Lorne impression in their back pocket, that probably wouldn’t have been a problem in any case.) The film purports to offer an “unprecedented, behind-the-scenes glimpse at the man who built the inimitable empire of comedy”; if nothing else, Neville presumably has pretty good access, having already filmed the show’s in-house SNL50 docuseries Beyond Saturday Night, which aired alongside the show’s general anniversary banquet of self-celebration last year.
Releasing on April 17, 2026, Lorne offers up interviews with many of the more famous people to have passed under Michaels’ tight-lipped tutelage: Press materials promise appearances from “Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, John Mulaney, Andy Samberg, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock and many more.” (Humorously, the PR copy doesn’t clarify whether Michaels himself sat down for interviews, but given that the movie is touting “unprecedented access to the quiet force who shaped American comedy,” that can presumably be taken as read.)
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