Reuniting Bridget with the woman
who gave her life in the first place

Empire 2016 Preview - Bridget Jones’s Baby

When Helen Fielding published Mad About The Boy in 2013, another big-screen Bridget seemed inevitable. But with (spoiler alert) the devastating demise of Mark Darcy in its pages, and considering the somewhat lukewarm reception to sequel The Edge Of Reason back in 2004, it wasn’t nailed on to receive a rapturous reception. Until, that is, it was announced that the third film would not be an adaptation of the book (phew) – but a brand-new story written by Fielding and David Nicholls set, timeline-wise, somewhere between the final two novels. Bridget is now 43 but still, before becoming pregnant at least, living the same old life, just now armed with an iPad. When Empire visited the set in Windsor, we witness a classicly slapstick Bridget scene as she ends up face down in the mud at a music festival before being rescued/hoisted up by the bum of her previously white jeans by Patrick Dempsey, who joins the franchise as her new love interest. Daniel Cleaver may be missing this time, but two important figures from the initial film are very present: Colin Firth as Mark Darcy (who may also be the daddy) and director Sharon Maguire.

“I’m so happy,” enthused Renée Zellweger about Maguire’s return. “There’s nothing better in the whole world than pulling off a silly stunt and hearing her laugh from behind the camera. I always feel that whenever I see her, that the character of Bridget is alive, existing somewhere right between the two of us.”