Please Don't Destroy are making a movie with Judd Apatow

Please Don’t Destroy, the three-person comedy collective responsible for many of Saturday Night Live’s most beloved pre-taped sketches that sometimes even actually make it to air, are moving up to the big leagues. Like Shailene Woodley before them, Ben Marshall, John Higgins, and Martin Herlihy are getting into the world of making movies, teaming up with comedic blessing-granter Judd Apatow to make a film out of their whole, y’know… vibe.

Specifically, the trio (per Variety) has sold an untitled new movie to NBCUniversal’s Universal Pictures, which they’ll write, produce, and star in. The film “centers on three childhood friends who live and work together. When the threesome decides they don’t like their life trajectory, they set off to find a gold treasure that is rumored to be buried in the nearby mountain,” which, yes, does pretty much sound like the mixture of juvenile silliness, chaos, and mild self-deprecation that you’d get if you tried to come up with a premise for a Please Don’t Destroy movie, right?

Apatow is set to produce, giving Higgins, Marshall, and Herlihy the same stamp of approval he previously handed out to the likes of Kumail Nanjiani, SNL’s Pete Davidson, and many other rising comedy talents. (Interestingly, Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video, responsible for so many early film projects from SNL alums, doesn’t appear to be involved in the production.) Apatow won’t be directing the movie, though; those duties will fall on Saturday Night Live’s Paul Briganti, who spent years helping to craft the show’s look before departing at the end of its most recent season; he’s also reportedly making a comedy movie with Chris Pratt.

The obvious question, of course, is whether Please Don’t Destroy’s particular brand of escalating chaos can appeal to a wider film audience; if nothing else, all the celebrity frenemies they’ve picked up over the last few years in the SNL offices will hopefully give the film a boost.