Bridget Jones is back! Fourth movie begins filming in May and Renee Zellweger’s already looking for a London home – but will Colin Firth’s character come a cropper?

Her rollercoaster love life, weight struggles, and impressive chardonnay and cigarette consumption have captivated the world for more than two decades.

Now The Mail on Sunday can reveal that former Bachelorette Bridget Jones is back.

A fourth film will begin filming in London in May, 23 years after Helen Fielding’s heroine first hit the big screen, with pre-production already underway.

Renee Zellweger will return to the lead role and is already looking for a home to live in while in Britain, according to sources.

The new film comes eight years after the last installment, Bridget Jones’s Baby, and will be based on Fielding’s 2013 novel, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, in which she raised young children as a single mother while scrolling through social media. and dating apps. .

Colin Firth and Hugh Grant, who played love rivals Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver, are expected to return to their roles in some capacity.

A film source said: ‘Bridget is back and she’s about to take over London. Filming is already being planned and all pre-production is underway.

‘There was some uncertainty about whether it would take off, but the movie is coming.

‘Renee is excited to bring Bridget back. She loves the character very much. Bridget Jones fever is expected to sweep London this spring.

Zellweger, 54, already has a team finding accommodation for her and her boyfriend, TV host Ant Anstead, 44, while she works on the project.

In previous shoots, she rented a hen do flat in Kensington, west London, where she lay low while shopping locally. But this time it is understood that she and Anstead, originally from Plymouth, are looking for something bigger.

The most recent film, released in 2016, saw Bridget shocked when she discovered she was pregnant. She ended up marrying Mark, the high-profile lawyer for whom she had had on-again, off-again feelings throughout the three films. It was also revealed that he was the father of her baby.

Grant did not appear in that film as Cleaver was initially assumed to be dead. In the end, however, a newspaper report appeared saying that he had been found alive.

After the film and after the novel Mad About The Boy, a book was published based on that story, although it was developed earlier. And in Mad About The Boy, Mark Darcy is dead, leaving Jones a widow, although it’s unknown if the film will be faithful to that.

When asked about a fourth installment of the film, Fielding previously told Radio Times: “Every film that gets made is a miracle.” I think it’s really hard to make movies, make them real and make them good, and we want it to be really good. But I really hope so. I would love to see it on screen.”

There were rumors last year that the film had been canceled due to strikes by American actors, but sources said such claims were “nonsense.”

The first film, Bridget Jones’s Diary, was released in 2001 and grossed £222 million at the box office, more than ten times what it cost to make. Zellweger’s last film was the 2019 biopic of Judy Garland.