Bridget Jones' Diary: What You Need To Know About The Film Rights

As we get reacquainted with Bridget Jones, Helen Fielding’s third book has yet to crack Hollywood. Will Mad About The Boy ever hit the big screen?

Bridget Jones - Mad About the Boy - Marie Claire - Marie Claire UK
Bridget Jones - Mad About the Boy - Marie Claire - Marie Claire UK
(Image credit: Rex Features)

As we get reacquainted with Bridget Jones, Helen Fielding’s third book has yet to crack Hollywood. Will Mad About The Boy ever hit the big screen?

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy's film rights remain available, as Hollywood stands divided on the third instalment of Helen Fielding’s hit series.So don't go holding your breath for a third movie...

It didn’t take long for the movie rumours to begin when Helen’s latest novel hit shelves earlier this month, selling over 48,000 copies on release day in the UK alone.

But it seems Hollywood’s finest aren’t quite so smitten with the big pant-loving heroine, whose personal dramas have made us laugh, cringe and cry in two previous film-adaptations.

Even Mark Darcy’s shock death doesn’t appear to have done the trick, while we find Bridget as a 51-year-old mother of two in Mad About The Boy.

Bridget Jones

Bridget Jones
(Image credit: Rex Features)

'The book's imminent publication in many territories has taken up all of Helen Fielding's time, and no consideration has yet been given to the film rights of Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy,' the author’s agent, Imogen Pelham, told The Hollywood Reporter this week.

Now nine years on from the release of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, the second follow-up to 2001’s Bridget Jones’s Diary, Renee Zellweger has appeared in a handful of films including My Own Love Song and Monsters vs Aliens.

Meanwhile, Colin Firth, who won’t be expected to appear in a new film *sob*, has had a string of successful roles in Mamma Mia!, Gambit and The King’s Speech.

Love or hate the new book, it remains to be seen whether Mad About The Boy has enough Hollywood appeal to make it onto the big screen. V.v.sad.

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