Lorne Michaels Documentary Sets April Release From Director Morgan Neville

Focus Features has set the release date for Lorne, a new behind-the-scenes documentary spotlighting the life of Lorne Michaels, the famed creator of Saturday Night Live. The film will be released in theaters in the U.S. on April 17, 2026. 

From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (Won't You Be My Neighbor), Lorne takes a look at the man who built the monumental comedy brand, which went on to shape the future of television. 

The documentary features exclusive footage, archival treasures, and candid interviews with the show’s most iconic cast members and writers including Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, John Mulaney, Andy Samberg, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock and more.

Lorne reunites Focus and Neville for a fourth time, having previously partnered on Piece By Piece, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, and Won't You Be My Neighbour?, which earned several awards, including Best Documentary at the 2019 Independent Spirit Awards. 

Though Lorne is billed as the first documentary about the creator, a scripted film about the first-ever broadcast of SNL debuted in 2024. Appropriately titled Saturday Night, the movie is directed by Jason Reitman and starred Gabriel LaBelle as Michaels, alongside an esmble cast that also included Rachel Sennott, Tracy Letts, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Emily Fairn, Matt Wood, Lamorne Morris, Kim Matula, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Kaia Gerber, Tommy Dewey, Willem Dafoe, Matthew Rhys, and J.K. Simmons.

Saturday Night Live celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2025, with a rebroadcast of the original SNL telecast, as well as several documentaries and specials, including SNL50: The Anniversary Special, which featured appearances by John Mulaney, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ana Gasteyer, Fred Armisen, Maya Rudolph, Bowen Yang, Martin Short, Nathan Lane, and many more.

About Morgan Neville

Morgan Neville is an Oscar, Grammy, and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker known for his work as a cultural documentarian. His acclaimed 2018 film Won’t You Be My Neighbor? is one of the best-reviewed and highest-grossing documentaries of all time. His 2013 film 20 Feet From Stardom won the Academy Award for Best Documentary. His 2021 film Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain was the highest-grossing documentary of that year.

Additional films and series include the Emmy-winning Best of Enemies, the Emmy-nominated STEVE! (Martin) a Documentary in 2 Pieces, Piece by Piece, Shangri-la, Watch The Sound with Mark Ronson, Song Exploder and Ugly Delicious. Neville was recently nominated for an Emmy for his work on the documentary series, SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night.

Most recently, he directed Man on the Run, which documents Paul McCartney’s decade-long creative surge after the Beatles, which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival and will be released by Amazon MGM on February 25.