Amazon Closes $13 Million Deal For New Mindy Kaling Comedy

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Mindy Kaling To Star In Comedy About Diversity In Writers Rooms

Amazon just closed a $13 million deal for Late Night, a comedy about diversity in a late night talk show writers room that is written, produced, and stars Mindy Kaling. This marks the first major sale out of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

Late Night is set to co-star Emma Thompson as a comic who begrudgingly takes an Indian-American writer (played by Kaling) under her wing after she is shamed into hiring more women and minorities. In her cover story for Variety, Kaling said that she saw Late Night as a chance to retell a familiar story of someone trying to break into the entertainment business, but from a fresh perspective.

“So much of this movie is about being a fan and being on the outside of the entertainment business,” she told Variety. “That story has been told many, many, many times by 52-year-old white men, and I love all those movies. And as a comedy nerd I’ve always identified with them because it was the closest thing that I could identify with. There was no one like me making those kind of films.”

Late Night was originally set up at Fox 2000 with Paul Feig slated to direct the comedy, but plans changed following Kaling’s pregnancy and an illness in Thompson’s family resulted in the start date getting pushed back. Once production finally began, Kaling lined up independent financing and tapped Nisha Ganatra to direct.

Late Night also co-stars John Lithgow, Amy Ryan, and Ike Barinholtz.