NEW YORK — Focus Features will release "Lorne," a documentary about Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, in theaters on Friday. The film was directed by Morgan Neville, whose previous subjects include Fred Rogers, Paul McCartney and Anthony Bourdain.

Neville took his cameras behind the scenes at 30 Rock's Studio 8H during multiple production weeks, capturing pitch meetings, writing night, table reads and dress rehearsals. The film shows a Monday meeting in which cast members and writers meet the guest host, and depicts Michaels using cards on a bulletin board to represent sketches, shuffling and weeding them out during production. The documentary is narrated by Chris Parnell.

Neville interviewed more than 50 people in Michaels' orbit, including current and former SNL staffers Tina Fey, Bill Hader, Andy Samberg, Conan O'Brien, Michael Che and Colin Jost. Michaels launched the live late-night sketch comedy show in 1975.

"But that doesn't mean he's not working very hard. For all of his wanting to be the 'Wizard of Oz,' he also wants people to know it's not easy being the Wizard of Oz," Neville said of Michaels.

In one scene, Michaels tells his longtime friend Steve Martin that he cannot retire because he needs to protect SNL. He said he believes that if Michaels opens the door on retirement too much, the wolves will circle. "He likes having the leverage he has now to protect the show," Neville said in an interview.

The documentary also depicts Michaels' routines outside SNL. He starts his days with his friend and neighbor Paul Simon, dines at Lattanzi on West 46th Street each Tuesday night with that week's host, and retreats to his house in Maine during breaks in production. The film reveals that no meeting at SNL starts before 4 p.m. and that popcorn is always on hand for Michaels to snack on.

"He's understood at this point, not only how to ride the waves of chaos, but to almost embrace it," he said, describing Michaels' approach to running the show. Neville also said that the show involves a certain amount of chaos, so everything else in Michaels' life is organized so that he does not have to think about it.

Howard Shore, the first music director of SNL, met Michaels at summer camp when they were 14. Rosie Shuster, an early SNL writer and Michaels' first wife, met him in high school. NBCUniversal is the parent company of Focus Features and NBC.