Diaries and big knickers at the ready, because Bridget Jones is officially set to return for a fourth film.
Renée Zellweger will reprise her Oscar-nominated role in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy with Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson also confirmed to return.
New additions in the cast include Chiwetel Ejiofor and man of the moment Leo Woodall from The White Lotus and One Day.
Michael Morris is set to direct the new film, which takes its title from the latest Bridget Jones novel that was published in 2013.
The story will pick up with Bridget in her 50s when (spoiler alert!) she’s looking for love all over again as a widowed mother of two after the death of Mark Darcy (Colin Firth).
While the studio has not confirmed how faithfully it will follow the book, author Helen Fielding has written the film script.
There’s no word yet on who the new cast additions will be playing, but Leo is rumoured to be Bridget’s younger love interest.
Shooting is due to start this year, with a US release date set for Valentine’s Day 2025.
Helen revealed to the BBC back in 2013 that Mad About the Boy was penned in secret so she could “write it like the first one”, free of expectation.
In 2021, she told HuffPost UK about one particularly satisfying storyline from Mad About The Boy, which reflected her commitment to better represent older female characters. “It was particularly enjoyable to write a scene where Bridget turns up amongst these people at a party with her gorgeous younger boyfriend, who ends up ripping off his shirt and diving into a pool to save a drowning dog,” she said.
Elsewhere, rom-com hero Hugh recently made a surprise admission about some of his most popular roles, revealing that he “never felt comfortable really doing them”.