Emma Thompson is set to star in a comedy about a talk show.

Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson

The 57-year-old actress will star alongside Mindy Kaling in the as-yet untitled new movie set in the world of late night chat programmes.

The story - written by Mindy, 37 - sees Emma play a veteran chat show host in danger of losing her long-running series. The disastrous news comes, coincidentally, at a time when the production company decide to hire the first female writer in the show's history, played by Mindy.

Variety reports a source described the script as 'The Devil Wears Prada' meets 'Broadcast News'.

Former 'The Office' star Mindy is also producing the project, with the help of Scott Rudin and Howard Klein.

There's no studio attached the production as of yet, but sources report a bidding war for the package is to be expect, with several bidders already in contention for bagging the project.

But Emma - who won an Oscar for her 1995 adaptation of 'Sense and Sensibility' - won't be looking for any award nominations from this project, as earlier this year she said she thinks shows like the Oscars "drive everybody insane" and should be scrapped.

She said previously: "What we need is to change the industrialisation of the awards season, which goes on for four-and-a-half months -- or longer -- and drives everybody insane. We really do need to do something about that. There are too many awards ceremonies; all sort of tied up with too much money. They're using actors in ways that I think are not healthy at all. A lot of us feel the same way... there's no joy or sense of celebration any more."