Deadline reports that Patrick Dempsey, the McDreamy physician who recently exited Grey’s Anatomy, is finalizing a deal to join Bridget Jones’ Baby. There’s no word on who Dempsey will play, but he’s got “romantic/paternity rival” written all over him. (He might want to see a doctor about that.) We suppose the story could also jump forward in time and feature Dempsey as Bridget Jones’ grown-up baby. In any case, author Helen Fielding is writing the script, and Bridget Jones’ Diary director Sharon Maguire will return to helm the film.
Bridget Jones’ Baby is the “much-anticipated third installment” in the series of film adaptations based on Fielding’s novels. Renée Zellweger will reprise her role as Bridget, a publishing executive and single woman with some bad habits, including falling for cads like the one played by Hugh Grant in the first two films. But the second film, Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, saw Bridget engaged to Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), a straitlaced barrister who loves her just as she is.
This latest sequel will reportedly have its plot culled from Fielding’s newspaper columns and not Mad About The Boy, the third book in her Bridget Jones series. That book was a mostly Mark Darcy-less romp, and since Firth is also returning to the franchise, Fielding probably had to find her inspiration elsewhere. Production is expected to start in another month or so, minus Grant’s Daniel Cleaver.