Emma Thompson plays a late night talk show host who hires a female staff writer (Mindy Kaling) in the official trailer for the comedy Late Night. While she’s recently appeared in films ranging from A Wrinkle in Time to Ocean’s Eight, Kaling is probably still best known for her role as Kelly Kapoor on The Office and/or her turn as Mindy Lahiri on The Mindy Project. She was also a writer/director on The Office and created The Mindy Project, in addition to serving as one of its head producers and star. Kaling once again pulls double-duty on Late Night, which she both wrote and costars in.
Obviously, this is just a promo, but one can already see why Late Night is being compared to The Devil Wears Prada, between the first trailer and the film’s premise. Thompson, in this case, is the seasoned professional who’s learned to survive in the demanding and typically sexist world of late night television, whereas Kaling is the bright-eyed newcomer who’s about to get a crash-course in what show-business is really like. Late Night was generally well-received by the critics who saw it at Sundance and has been praised for being an insightful workplace comedy in the tradition of shows like 30 Rock and, fittingly, The Office. Others, however, feel the movie is relatively toothless and doesn’t pack the satirical punch that it’s going for.
