HBO has just released the official trailer forMr. Saturday Night, a documentary that takes us back to the time of bell bottoms, polyester and disco. When Aussie Robert Stigwood, band manager of The Bee Gees, after reading about the disco craze happening in the U.S., took a 2 miliion dollar gamble. He wanted to bring disco to the big screen.
The official synopsis reads, “HBO documentaryMr. Saturday Night, directed by John Maggio (HBO’sA Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks) and executive produced byThe Ringer’sBill Simmons (HBO’sAndre The Giant,Showbiz Kids), chronicles the meteoric career of Australian entrepreneur Robert Stigwood, who gambled on a magazine article about the Brooklyn night club scene and turned it into the 1977 cultural touchstoneSaturday Night Fever, making a global superstar out ofJohn Travoltaand reinvigorating disco with a platinum-selling soundtrack anchored by four number-one hits from theBee Gees.Mr. Saturday Nighttracks Stigwood’s journey from managing artists such as Eric Clapton and the Bee Gees, to producing the hit theater productions of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ ‘Tommy’ and ‘Evita,’ to forever changing the way film studios approached movie soundtrack synergy, leaving an indelible mark on American cinema and the record industry for decades to come."
John Travolta recalls his tredpidation for taking the role of Tony Manero. “I got the script, I read it that night. I wondered if I could give it enough dimension. Diana (Hyland) took it into the other room, and in about an hour she burst back in. ‘Baby, you are going to be great in this—great! This Tony, he’s got all the colors! First he’s angry about something. He hates the trap that Brooklyn and his dumb job are. There’s a whole glamorous world out there waiting for him, which he feels only when he dances. And he grows, he gets out of Brooklyn.’” Travolta remembers countering, “‘He’s also king of the disco. I’m not that good a dancer.’ ‘Baby,’ she said, ‘you’re going to learn!’”
Executive producer Kevin McCormick described Stigwood’s confidence in the film, despite having a limited knowledge of how a film was made. “He had no financier. He was financing it himself with his new partners, for two and a half million dollars. I knew that the budget was at least $2.8 [million] already. I had a stomachache every day. We were making this low-budget movie out of l35 Central Park West—we literallyput together the soundtrackin Stigwood’s living room.”
Immediatley, they had trouble with the first director, John G. Avildsen.He saw Tony Manero as more of a nice guy, instead of the rough, and at times, crude young tough from Brooklyn. One month before principal photography John Badham would replace him. They auditionedmany choreographersbefore landing Lester Wilson. Travolta describes Lester Wilson as “such an interesting guy. He taught me what he called his ‘hang time.’ He would smoke a cigarette to greet the day, and he infused my dancing with African-American rhythm. I’m the kind of dancer who needs thought and construction—an idea—before I dance. I need an internal story. Lester would put on some music and he would say, ‘Move with me, motherf-cker—move with me!’”
Turn it up, and be ready to get down! An official selection of Doc NYC 2021,Mr. Saturday Nightdebuts December 9 on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.
