LorneMichaels Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The season might be over after Will Ferrell wrapped it up in a nice bow, but the Saturday Night Live train keeps truckin'. When the George Foster Peabody Awards were held the other day in New York City, it became an SNL news releasing zone. Besides talking about their hunt for new writers and stars, Lorne Michaels talked about movies. Specifically, he told The Hollywood Reporter that a big feature film for MacGruber is being considered, and that "it would have to be in the summer because we are back in production in the fall." Not this summer, I'd imagine, since they're "still in discussions."

Hello timely spoofs and product placement! You might remember that New Line started the quest for a new MacGyver back in March, so naturally it'd make sense to match that with Will Forte's MacGyver spoof. And oh, the product placement that's possible! If you Google "MacGruber," you'll be greeted by a sea of blog posts and clips of the SNL/Pepsi commercials where the hero hands in his mixed drink for an obsession with Pepsi products.

But could this be anything other than a short skit stretched way too long? The skits are a silly laugh, but I fear a feature might send it into eye-rolling Rob Schneider territory.

Are you primed for an hour and a half of supreme MacGruber action?

When I told a friend of mine that I was heading to a screening of Baby Mama, he immediately replied: "Oh, the Saturday Night Live movie?" Hmm -- well, sort of. The comedy -- which premiered at Tribeca and goes wide this weekend -- was produced by SNL honcho Lorne Michaels, and stars show veterans Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. On the other hand, it's not based on an SNL sketch, and doesn't feature any characters from the show.

Baby Mama's pre-release reputation as a "Saturday Night Live movie" probably isn't helpful: movies falling into that category don't have the best track record in the minds of people who pay attention. At the same time, the show has contributed a lot to the movies, mostly in its capacity as a breeding ground for comedic talent. This installment of Cinematical Seven collects films with an SNL connection that have actually been good, or in some way significant. I limited the pool to the last ten years; we all know that The Blues Brothers and Wayne's World are classics that started out as SNL sketches, but what has the show done for us lately?

Last week, at the ever-so-swanky Ritz-Carlton near Central Park, Universal held a press conference for its upcoming feature, Baby Mama, which opens the Tribeca Film Festival tonight. Who participated? None other than stars Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Sigourney Weaver, along with writer-director Mike McCullers.

Fey and Poehler were first, and they spoke to reporters together. They met on the Chicago improv circuit fifteen years ago, performing together in a group called Inside Vladimir (named after a gay porn movie, apparently).

"I had heard about Tina -- on the streets! -- before I met her," said Poehler. "We both had moved from where we were going to college to study improv. We were the two women on that improv team and that's where we were when we met. We met when we were big eyebrowed, poor, badly dressed ducklings."

The chemistry between the longtime friends was evident not only in the movie itself, but also during the press conference; they were able to very easily joke around and go back and forth without stepping on each other's toes. And, of course, since both are improvisational experts, they came up with very funny lines instantly, like when a reporter asked Poehler if she has any desire to be a mother. The answer is in the following audio clip:

Amy Poehler wants to be an Oscar winner's mother (0:14)

More quotes and audio after the jump.

The first time I heard the term "Baby Mama" was probably on either Maury or Jerry Springer (don't laugh... you hear a lot of things as you're flipping over to PBS). It and its male equivalent, "Baby Daddy," essentially describes a person with whom you've had a child, but no other relationship currently exists. It used to be street slang, but in a movie world where pregnancy of all types seems to be the hot, go-to topic (Juno, Knocked Up), the whole "baby mama" thing was sure to come up at some point. I just never thought it would come from Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

In Baby Mama, which opens the Tribeca Film Festival tonight and arrives nationwide on April 25, Fey plays Kate Holbrook, a successful vice president of a Whole Foods-esque organic supermarket chain. She's got the great job and the stunning Philadelphia apartment, but at 37, she longs for something more. You guessed it: Kate wants kids, and doesn't want to wait until she gets married to have them. One little problem: her chances of actually having a child are one in a million ("I just don't like your uterus," is what Kate's fertility doctor, played by The Daily Show's John Hodgman, tells her).