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Mindy Kaling and Amazon Studio Chief Jennifer Salke made a major power move at Sundance Film Festival. Amazon made the first big purchase at Sundance after buying the rights to Kaling's upcoming film "Late Night" for $13 million.
Salke fell in love with the film calling it an, "incisive workplace comedy."
"We too rarely get to see female characters this complex, flawed, and unapologetically ambitious," Salke said in a statement.
“It’s really a movie about being a fan,” Kaling told The Associated Press. “I’ve been such a comedy nerd my whole life and I’ve always felt like on the outside looking in. I had no connections in the business, but I just loved comedy and... late-night talk shows. So the movie is just really a love letter for people who are fans of something and really want to be part of it, but don’t feel like they have any access.”
Kaling, who wrote and produced the movie, took from her own personal experiences in the industry and it received a great response at the festival.
In the Nisha Gantara-directed film, Katherine played by "Saving Mr. Banks" actress Emma Thompson is a veteran TV talk show host who fears she may lose her job due to a decline in ratings and a new on-the-rise comedian played by Ike Barinholtz. In an attempt to remain employed, Thompson's character, who ironically does not like women, hires Kaling's character Molly Patel, a young comedy writer, to shake up and diversify the all-male writer's room. The film also stars John Lithgow, Amy Ryan, Megalyn Echikunwoke and Max Casella.
Amazon's purchase was one of the highest made at Sundance with Nate Parker's 2016 film "The Birth of a Nation" remaining at the number one spot after being bought for $17.5 million.
"Late Night" follows suit with Sundance's initiative to diversify and highlight more women and people of color in film.