Her rollercoaster love life, struggle with weight, and impressive consumption of chardonnay and cigarettes have captivated the world for more than two decades.
Now the Mail on Sunday can reveal that once-singleton Bridget Jones is back.
Twenty-three years after Helen Fielding’s heroine first appeared on the silver screen, filming began on the fourth film in London in May, with pre-production already well underway.
Sources say Renée Zellweger is set to return in the lead role and is already looking for a home while in the UK.
The new film will be released eight years after its predecessor, “Bridget Jones’ Baby,” and is based on Fielding’s 2013 novel “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.” The novel follows Fielding as a single mother raising her young children while juggling social media and dating apps. .
Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, who played romantic rivals Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver, are both expected to return to their roles in some capacity.
A source close to the film said, “Bridget is coming back and trying to take over London.” Shooting is already planned and all pre-production is in place.
“There was some uncertainty about whether it would get off the ground, but the movie is almost finished.
“Renee is thrilled to be bringing Bridget back. She loves the character so much. Bridget Jones fever is expected to spread across London this spring.”
Zellweger, 54, has already assembled a team to find accommodation for her and her boyfriend, TV host Ant Anstead, 44, while she works on the project.
For previous filming, she hired a bachelorette pad in Kensington, West London, so she could go unnoticed while shopping locally. But this time she and Plymouth native Anstead are understood to be looking for something bigger.
The latest film, released in 2016, depicts Bridget’s shock when she learns she is pregnant. It ended with her marrying Mark, a high-flying lawyer with whom she had feelings intermittently throughout the three films. It was also revealed that he was the father of her baby.
Grant did not appear in that film, as Cleaver was thought to be dead at the beginning. However, in the end, there was a newspaper report that he had been found alive.
A book based on that story was published after the movie and after the novel Mad About the Boy, but it was set before that. And in Mad About the Boy, Mark Darcy dies and Jones becomes a widow, but it’s unclear whether the film will be faithful to that.
“Every film that gets made is a miracle,” Fielding previously told Radio Times when asked about a fourth film. I think it’s really hard to make a movie and make it happen and make it good, but we want it to be really good. But I really hope so. I would love to see it on screen. ”
Rumors circulated last year that the film was canceled due to a strike by American actors, but officials said those claims were “nonsense.”
The first film, Bridget Jones’s Diary, was released in 2001 and grossed £222 million at the box office, more than 10 times the cost of making it. Zellweger’s last film was the 2019 Judy Garland biopic.