MINDY KALING HAS BEEN ALL OVER THE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS LATELY, AND FOR GOOD REASON. THE STAR OF THE OFFICE IS CURRENTLY WRAPPING UP WITH THE SIXTH AND FINAL SEASON OF HER HIT COMEDY SERIES THE MINDY PROJECT, AND WILL STAR ON THE UPCOMING OCEAN’S EIGHT, THE REBOOT OF THE OCEAN TRILOGY THAT FEATURES AN ALL-FEMALE CAST, AND HAS JUST ANNOUNCED THAT SHE IS PREGNANT. HOW DOES SHE JUGGLE ALL THIS?
The Office Star Cast in Upcoming Ocean’s Eight
Kaling is perhaps most widely known for her role as Kelly Kapoor on the hit NBC series The Office. She portrayed the customer office representative and chatterbox who enjoys one-sided lengthy discussions about relatively trivial topics and she quickly became one of the hilarious highlights on the show. But her role did not stop there – Kaling was also a writer, producer and occasional director on the series. She plans to write a book with her co-writer and co-actor on The Office, B. J. Novak; Kaling has already written two books (or rather, memoirs), aptly called Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), and Why Not Me?, both of which appeared on the New York Times best-seller list – Why Not Me? even achieved the top spot.
It is no wonder then that Kaling was cast as one of the main eight characters in the upcoming Ocean’s Eight film, set to premiere in June 2018. Anyone who has seen the previous trilogy knows that the main element of the movies – apart from casinos – is the ultimate A-list ensemble cast: George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts were the main trio, and then we had Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Vincent Cassel, Al Pacino… And the list goes on. The heist movie trilogy revolved around breaking into casinos and really set the bar for that iconic casino aura that so many Hollywood blockbusters feature, like the James Bond movie Casino Royale from 2006, which earned over $599 million worldwide, or The Hangover film franchise, whose story could arguably not be set anywhere else but Las Vegas.
Kaling Pulling a Heist on the Met Gala?
That Kaling has been cast in Ocean’s Eight really attests to her talent. The movie continues in the great tradition of enlisting world-class actors – only this time the gang is all-female and led by Daniel Ocean’s sister, Debbie Ocean, a con artist herself who is portrayed by Sandra Bullock. Joining her, besides Kaling, are Kate Blanchet, Helena Bonham Carter, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Anne Hathaway and Rihanna. It seems that Kaling is extremely excited to be joining such a cast, and she jokingly commented on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert that her unique skill that she will bring to the gang would probably be “getting attacked by the guard dog”, so that the rest can break into the casino.
She also revealed on the show that the movie will be shot in New York and that it would feature a strong fashion element; as it has become known since then, the plot will revolve around breaking into the Met Gala – so perhaps we could expect a cameo from Vogue’s leading lady, Anna Wintour? It seems so, and it was also confirmed a couple of weeks ago that socialites and reality TV superstars Kim Kardashian, along with Kylie and Kendall Jenner will also be making short appearances on the movie, joining supermodel Adriana Lima, heartthrob musician Zayn Malik and Katie Holmes.
From The Mindy Project to Four Weddings and a Funeral
A lot of stuff is still in the works for Mindy Kaling – her own romantic comedy series, The Mindy Project, which features Kaling as Mindi Lahiri, an OB/GYN who tries to strike a balance in her professional and personal life, has just seen its sixth and final season air on September 12. The show has been met with critical acclaim – it currently holds a rare 87% on Rotten Tomatoes – but it was time for Kaling to move on. Seeing that she has often been regarded as an example of a successful American Indian woman on TV, starring in a Hollywood blockbuster that finally sees a change of approach in recruiting female A-listers was an obvious next step.
Yet Kaling has a lot more planned – even with the exciting news about her personal life. She will also star (alongside Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon) in the upcoming 2018 sci-fi movie A Wrinkle in Time, based on the 1963 novel by Madeleine D’Engle. It was also confirmed in October that Kaling, along with Matt Warburton (The Mindy Project showrunner) will develop an anthology TV series based on the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral. The series has been picked up by Hulu and we expect to hear more about it soon. The duo is also collaborating on another NBC comedy series, Venice Beach Venture, and Kaling herself is involved in the NBC comedy Champions and another yet unnamed series by Lang Fisher. Talk about multitasking!
Whatever the future holds, it seems that the talented Ms Kaling has a knack for extremely popular comedy – and we have not seen enough from her yet.
