Emma Thompson 'brought on board to rewrite script for nightmare third Bridget Jones movie'

MAIL ON LINE
By SARAH ROBERTSON FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 09:53 EST, 13 October 2014 | UPDATED: 10:30 EST, 13 October 2014

She won an Oscar for her adaptation of Sense And Sensibility, and now Emma Thompson is reportedly set to turn her hand to saving the third Bridget Jones film.

The 55-year-old actress is said to have been recruited to rescue the ailing movie after cast members gave the proposed storyline the thumbs down.

Bosses at Working Title Films have called in the British star to 'rewrite the first draft' of Bridget Jones Baby, which was originally penned by Bridget creator Helen Fielding and One Day author David Nicholls.

As well as no Hugh Grant, it's unclear whether the film's lead actress Reneé Zellweger would reprise her famous role after writer Fielding admitted she had lost touch with her.

The third film is expected to be very different from Fielding's novel Mad About The Boy, which sees a widowed Bridget in her early 50's raising her two young children as a single mother following the death of Darcy.

Bridget Jones’ Diary, the first installment in the franchise, was a box office smash in 2001, taking $281m around the world and breaking UK box office records.



Its sequel The Edge of Reason maintained its predecessor’s blockbuster takings with $262m in 2004 - but was panned by critics.

Instead the new screenplay is said to spare the life of Colin Firth’s Mark Darcy character and look at Bridget’s desire to become a mother in her early forties.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2790845/emma-thompson-brought-board-rewrite-script-nightmare-bridget-jones-movie.html#ixzz3GFALdeoj 
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Hugh Grant has dished on working with Julia Roberts, Renée Zellweger, Sandra Bullock and Sarah Jessica Parker

CELEBRITY LIFE
October 12, 2014



HUGH Grant may be discreet about the women in his private life but the actor has spilled on which of his female co-stars was the best kisser and who he actually enjoyed working with.

Grant dished the dirt on Alan Carr’s Chatty Man show while promoting his new romantic comedy The Rewrite in which he stars opposite Marissa Tomei.

He said you never quite know when you are cast whether the chemistry will work.

“Sometimes you loathe each other. Sometimes hate comes over as love. I’ve had some amazing leading ladies,” he said. “The ones I really got on with are Sandra Bullock and Sarah Jessica Parker.”

When it comes to kissing however he said he struggled smooching Julia Roberts in Notting Hill.

“It’s a big mouth. I was aware of a faint echo when I was kissing her,” he said.

Grant said no one can beat Bridget Jones’ Diary co-star Renée Zellweger when it comes to kissing, saying she is definitely “top snogger”.

He said that he and Colin Firth engaged in a “competitive snogging” contest to try and outdo each other.

“You will have to ask Renee who she preferred. I think Colin tried too hard,” he said.


READ MORE HERE: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/hugh-grant-has-dished-on-working-with-julia-roberts-rene-zellweger-sandra-bullock-and-sarah-jessica-parker/story-fn907478-1227087684456

Hugh Grant pulls out of the third Bridget Jones’s Diary film

The Telegraph
By Tim Walker



Two years after Hugh Grant told Mandrake that filming of the second sequel to Bridget Jones’s Diary was on hold until the writers had made the script more to his liking, I can disclose that the capricious actor has quit the project for good.

“I decided not to do it,” says Grant, who played the love rat Daniel Cleaver in the first two films, in an interview today with Free Radio in the Midlands. “But I think they’re going to go ahead and do it without Daniel. The book’s excellent, by the way, but the script is completely different – well, the script as I last saw it a few years ago.”

It is likely that the 54-year-old actor will be conspicuous by his absence in the long-mooted film which is being written with the active involvement of Helen Fielding – who created the character Bridget – and offers what is described as an alternative version of events to what she tells in her third book in the series, Mad About The Boy.



While Mark Darcy – played by Colin Firth – is killed off in Fielding’s latest book, it is understood that he will be spared in the forthcoming film, which will take up Bridget’s story after she has turned 40 and is yearning for a baby. Renée Zellweger – who played Bridget in the first two films – is believed to be signed up for the project, along with Firth.

READ MORE HERE: http://www.msn.com/en-ie/entertainment/news/hugh-grant-pulls-out-of-the-third-bridget-jones%E2%80%99s-diary-film/ar-BB8v639

Colin Firth, Bridget Jones Video

Found this video on a great site - The Firth Sisters and enjoyed it immensely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQPAtwmcQkI&feature=player_embedded#!

Colin Firth's career in pictures

Colin Firth in The King's Speech (2010)

With Julianne Moore in A Single Man (2009)

Firth in When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007)

In Nanny McPhee (2005)

In Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason with Hugh Grant and Renee Zellweger (2004)

With Scarlett Johansson in the Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003)

In The Importance of Being Earnest (2002

In Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)

With Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Firth in Fever Pitch (1997)    (love the hair)

Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle in Pride and Prejudice (1995)

Colin Firth and Annette Bening in Valmont (1989)  (He was wonderful in this - the best Valmont)

Firth and Kenneth Branagh in A Month in the Country (1987) 

Colin Firth in the TV series Lost Empires (1986)  (was he ever this young???)

In the TV series Dutch Girls (1985)

Colin Firth with Rupert Everett in Another Country (1984)  (I never realized they did so many films together)

'Bridesmaids' director drops out of helming 'Bridget Jones 3'

 

Studio still eyeing January start for the film

By HitFix Staff Tuesday, Oct 4, 2011 8:31 PM

Bridget has been depressed and bed-ridden since Paul's departure

Credit: Universal Pictures

"Bridesmaids" helmer Paul Feig has decided against directing "Bridget Jones 3", following a period in which he developed the most recent script alongside Universal and Working Title with an eye toward getting behind the camera. Nevertheless, the studio is still looking to go into production on the film in January with Renee Zellwegger, Colin Firth and Hugh Grant reprising their roles from the first two movies.

According to Deadline, which broke the news, Universal is now on the lookout for a British director to take the reins, an angle which apparently factored into their and Feig's mutual decision not to collaborate on the project.

Any ideas from readers on Brit filmmakers who might be a good fit for the project?

The well-reviewed first film grossed over $280 million worldwide (over $70 million of that domestically), while its 2004 sequel "Edge of Reason" made nearly as much despite not being well-received by critics. Given that there's been a seven-year gap since the last movie, the studio really needs to pick a fresh up-and-comer like Feig to get audiences excited again.

Author Helen Fielding, who wrote the bestselling novels on which the first two films were based, is currently writing the third book in the series, though it's unclear whether the next movie will serve as a direct adaptation. The London Evening Standard reported Fielding's statement at a reading earlier this year that the third novel would partially focus on the title character suffering a "mid thirties baby crisis".
Luckily for Universal, which distributed "Bridesmaids", Feig isn't straying from the nest anytime soon; he currently has two other projects set up at the studio, including an untitled Jon Hamm/Melissa McCarthy comedy being produced by Judd Apatow.

Related Searches:Bridget Jones, Bridget Jones 3, Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding, Renee Zellwegger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Paul Feig, Bridesmaids