‘ Four Weddings and a Funeral’ reboots this week

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Actress/ writer Mindy Kaling (“The Mindy Project”) is a huge fan of romantic comedies — so when the company that owns the rights to the classic 1994 film “Four Weddings and a Funeral” approached her about writing a limited series reboot, she was wary.

“We didn’t think there was that much more to say, because it’s so perfect,” Kaling said Friday at the Television Critics Association summer 2019 press tour. “And then when MGM approached me about it, I was thinking, ‘ Well, what would make it worth it would be to probably show a love story through the lens that I would like to see a love story, which is an African American woman and a British Pakistani man falling in love. I would love to see that.’”

This new 10- episode “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” debuting Wednesday on streaming service Hulu, follows a New York woman, Maya ( Nathalie Emmanuel, “Game of Thrones”), who

visits her college friends in London and meets cute with Kash ( Nikesh Patel) while trying to find her lost luggage upon her arrival. Richard Curtis, who directed the film, is an executive producer on this series.

Kaling, co- creator Matt Warburton (“The Mindy Project”) and showrunner Tracey Wigfield (“Great News”) do pepper the new “Four Weddings” with allusions to the original and other British rom- coms, including a cameo by original “Four Weddings” star Andie MacDowell as the mother of one of the new characters.

“The beauty of ‘ Four Weddings and a Funeral’ the film is that the relationship between Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell is the romantic story,” Kaling said. “But to me, the real story is about the friendship and the relationship with him and his brother, and the charming way that they have a shorthand with each other. And that to me is why I wanted to do this. I love romantic comedies, as you all have heard ad nauseum. … But the essence of the friendships that he had in his incredible cast in his film, we wanted to share that with these guys.”

In the lead roles, Kaling sought to distance the TV series, which tells a complete story, from the film.

“One thing I didn’t want to do is have a floppy- haired British guy,” she said. “Hugh Grant at that age, with floppy hair, looking like that, is so iconic to romantic comedies. There [ are] other ways of being really sexy that you see in the show and new ways to be iconic, and we didn’t want to have that guy. So there really isn’t any character who is a young 23- year- old guy trying to figure out his life, who’s white and British on this show. Because we thought we don’t want unfavorable comparisons, and the original did it so well. And, you know, it makes room for a lot of other really fascinating, funny characters.”

Mr. Warburton said he likes the idea of the episodes being released weekly given the expectations that come along with the show’s title.

“There’s something inherently fun about a show called ‘ Four Weddings and a Funeral’ to be spread out over a few weeks, because you’re looking forward to the next wedding. You want to know what the funeral is,” he said. “It’s like every episode, anybody could die.”

“It’s like ‘ Game of Thrones,’” Wigfield teased.

Cast members said they did try to sneak in an ode to a cringe- worthy line of dialogue poorly delivered at the end of the “Four Weddings” movie.

“There was one scene where I kept going at the end of the take, I’d be like, ‘ Is it raining?’” Emmanuel said.

“The director’s like, ‘ No,’” Patel added.