Shock! And also horror. Move over Mark Darcy – Bridget Jones has a new love. His name is Ian Pad (though he trendily goes by iPad), and he’s clearly the best thing in her life (and arms) right now. Yes, it’s the first picture of Renée Zellweger as Helen Fielding’s heroine from the third Jones outing, called – currently, at least – Bridget Jones’s Baby.
The original Bridget’s director Sharon Maguire is back to make this one, from a script that has seen work by Fielding and Far From The Madding Crowd’s David Nicholls. Plot-wise, details are still locked in Bridget’s diary, but word is that the new movie will be based on Fielding’s columns and not her third book, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, which (spoiler) outraged fans by offing Mark Darcy and leaving Bridge to raise their kids alone.
Instead, the title points to the early days of Bridget getting unexpectedly preggers and exploring the joys and challenges of motherhood. Patrick Dempsey is also in the cast in an unspecified role, though he could well be a new romantic rival, since Hugh Grant won’t be showing up in this one. There’s some debate as to whether Dempsey might be the father instead of Colin Firth’s Mark, which would add the requisite dramatic tension and potentially a chance for Firth to put his Kingsman skills to the test and avoid another rubbish slap fight. The cameras are cranking now, and we can expect delivery on the film on September 16 next year.