UPDATED: Mindy Kaling and Emma Thompson join forces for late-night talk show movie
Over the years Mindy Kaling has been vocal about her love for Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility, written by and starring Emma Thompson. Kaling put it on her list of #Fave7Films and said in 2014 that “Thompson gets overlooked for” it. So the news that Thompson will be co-starring in a film Kaling wrote must be something of a dream come true for The Mindy Project creator. Variety reports that Thompson will play a late-night talk show host who hires her first female writer, played by Kaling, and struggles to keep her show.
According to the publication, the film has been described “as The Devil Wears Prada meets Broadcast News.” Perhaps that means it will include dashes of The Late Shift and The Larry Sanders Show, with a hint of Joan Rivers’ real life thrown in for good measure. It’s been years since Rivers’ show was on the air, and the world of late night is still relatively light on women hosts, so it sounds like Kaling’s film could address the gender divide. Variety notes that no studio has grabbed it up yet, but the bidding is “expected to be heated.” Prolific producer Scott Rudin is also on board.
Update: Well, that didn’t take long. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox 2000 picked up the rights for the film.