Renée Zellweger is set to reprise her Oscar-nominated role as Bridget Jones in an upcoming fourth installment of the beloved romcom franchise. Universal Pictures announced Tuesday that Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which will also bring back Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver and Emma Thompson as Dr. Rawlings, is officially in the works, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Just like the first two films, the new film, from Universal Pictures and Working Title, will be adapted from one of Helen Fielding’s novels, the 2013 novel Mad About the Boy. The story picks up with Bridget now in her early fifties and follows her as she navigates life, work, family, and love as a single mother and widow and during the social media era.
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The film will see Zellweger return to the franchise for the fourth time, with Grant returning for his third movie after previously appearing in 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary and 2004’s Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Thompson, meanwhile, first starred in 2016’s Bridget Jones’s Baby. Along with the returning cast, the upcoming film will also star franchise newcomers Chiwetel Ejiofor and Leo Woodall, but details of their characters haven’t yet been released.
News of the film comes more than a year after Fielding teased in an interview with Radio Times’ View From My Sofa Podcast that another movie was in the works. At the time, the author shared, “Yes I’m working on it and I really hope it will happen. Every film that gets made is a miracle – it’s really difficult to make films happen and to make them good. But I’d love to see it on the screen.”
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy will be directed by To Leslie director Michael Morris, with Fielding, who wrote the script, serving as an executive producer and Miramax co-financing the project. Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Jo Wallett produce g through Working Title Films, while the company’s Amelia Granger and Sarah-Jane Wright executive produce. The movie is set to debut on Feb. 14, 2025, Valentine’s Day, on Peacock in the US and will be released in theaters internationally.
The Bridget Jones franchise kicked off in 2001 with Bridget Jones’s Diary, which was followed in 2004 by Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, both of which were based on Fielding’s novels. Released in 2016, Bridget Jones’s Baby, meanwhile, was based on columns Fielding wrote for The Independent in 2005 and 2006. Together, the three films have made more than $760 million at the worldwide box office.
