Collin Firth and Hugh Grant starred alongside Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001). Photo / News Corp Australia
Collin Firth and Hugh Grant starred alongside Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001). Photo / News Corp Australia
Renée Zellweger and Hugh Grant will step back into their famous roles for the fourth film in the franchise. More cast members have been announced.
Dust off your big pants, there’s a new Bridget Jones movie in the pipeline.
Following earlier reporting and speculation about the production, this week Universal Pictures and Working Title confirmed the film.
Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, based on Helen Fielding’s 2013 book, will be directed by Michael Morris – who made the acclaimed To Leslie – and is expected to be released on Valentine’s Day, 2025.
The story follows Jones, now a singleton once more, traversing romance in the modern world (including dating apps and dalliances with younger men) as she juggles life as a single mother.
Filming will begin in May, reports The Mail On Sunday. “Filming is being mapped out already and all of the pre-production is in place,” a source told the paper. “Renee is excited about bringing Bridget back. She adores the character so much.”
In good news for fans, Hugh Grant is also returning, reprising caddish Daniel Cleaver.
Other A-listers set to star are Chiwetel Ejiofor and Emma Thompson, who will reprise her role of Doctor Rawling from Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016). They’ll be joined by rising talent Leo Woodall, who is riding the success of his roles in One Day and White Lotus.
It must be love: Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall as Emma and Dexter in Netflix's One Day.
It’s doubtful that Colin Firth will join them, with Marc Darcy’s character arc ending in the book, however the film may depart from that plot.
With news of the fourth film in the franchise, it cements the Bridget Jones cinematic universe as an expansive one.
Now something of a cultural icon, Bridget first came to life as an anonymous, satirical column in the Independent, before Helen Fielding turned her character into a novel, Bridget Jones’s Diary, released in 1996, followed by a sequel The Edge of Reason, in 1999.
Bridget Jones and friends in Bridget Jones 2 : The Edge of Reason
Fielding and Bridget defined and lampooned aspects of life in the 1990s, and the books were translated for the screen.
Bridget Jones’s Diary was a smash hit when it was released in 2001, earning 10 times what it cost to make, and earning a legion of fans. Zellweger was nominated for an academy award for the role.
Ensuing films – Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004) and Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016) - followed the travails of Bridget’s career and love life, and the character has become a pivotal part of the romantic genre and resonated with many women.
There’s been criticism in recent years as people revisit the books and films, taking it literally, but when considering the source material and Fielding’s intention with the character, we remember Bridget Jones acts as a mirror of the times – beauty standards, societal expectation, class tensions and more.
What will she reflect in the fourth film? Time will tell.
