James Franco's SNL Doc Comes to Hulu

Coming exclusively to Hulu Plus today, James Franco's Saturday Night Live documentary, simply titled Saturday Night, documents the chaotic and sleepless week that the cast and crew puts into writing and filming each new episode of SNL.

Originally created as part of Franco's NYU film class in 2008, the documentary follows the production week for an episode hosted by actor John Malkovich and featuring standout personalities such as Kristen Wiig, Seth Meyers, and Bill Hader.

"One of my favorite things is to see how things work, especially things I love as much as SNL," Franco said in a statement. "We were granted unprecedented access behind the scenes of the legendary show. We got to watch the masters of comedy work under the guidance of the grandmaster himself, [TV producer] Lorne Michaels."

Speaking with Out about the curious connection between doing a documentary on SNL and Kink, the documentary on BDSM pornography that he produced with director Christina Voros (who is the cinematographer on this film, as well as many other of his recent indie movies), Franco explained: "In a weird way, talking about the SNL documentary, it was another version of that. It's about people in entertainment business--obviously very different wings of it--doing their thing and how they do it. In a way, it's interesting how a sketch comedy show and hardcore BDSM pornography had a lot of crossover--in the way they work together and depend on each other."

Selling out premieres at both SXSW and the Tribeca Film Festival, the documentary quickly garnered enough buzz to attract major platforms such as Hulu, which will also be hosting episodes from SNL's 40th season the day after they air. Catch Chris Pratt as he hosts the Season 40 premiere on Saturday, September 27 on NBC.