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For decades, they have fought over singleton Bridget Jones as she searches for The One.
And now it can be revealed that Colin Firth and Hugh Grant are back to reprise their roles as Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver.
Firth and Grant, both 63, have agreed to be part of the fourth – and likely final – Bridget Jones film, which begins filming in London in May and will once again star Renee Zellweger.
Sources say the directors are ‘ecstatic’ that both agreed to star in the film. An insider said it ‘wouldn’t have been the same’ without them, adding: ‘Both men are in high demand so it feels like a huge coup to have everything come together. No matter how it ends for Bridget, there will be some roller coaster rides with these two men involved.’
Hugh Grant, Renee Zellweger and Colin Firth at the Berlin premiere of the original Bridget Jones film in 2001
Firth and Grant’s characters famously hit the streets in the first film
Star Renee Zellweger, 54, is finding a base for her and her British boyfriend, Ant Anstead, in the London area while filming
Zellwegger in the franchise’s sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, released in 2004
Emma Thompson and Renee Zellweger in the series’ third film, Bridget Jones’s Baby, shot in 2016
Last month, The Mail on Sunday revealed that Helen Fielding’s heroine would make a sensational return 23 years after the first film, Bridget Jones’s Diary.
Pre-production is underway and Ms Zellweger, 54, is finding a base for her and her British boyfriend, Ant Anstead, in the London area while she films.
The new film comes eight years after the last installment, Bridget Jones’s Baby, and is based on Ms Fielding’s 2013 novel, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, which saw her as a single mother.
The last film ended with her marrying Darcy, the high-flying lawyer – based on the Jane Austen character – for whom she has on-and-off feelings throughout the previous films. It was also revealed that he is the father of her baby.
Grant did not appear in that film and was initially presumed dead. But eventually there was a newspaper report saying he had been found alive – giving lothario Cleaver a way back into the final.
In the Mad About The Boy novel, Darcy is dead, leaving Jones a widow – although it is not known if the new film will be faithful to that.