When news arrived this summer that Paul Feig, riding very high off the smash success of “Bridesmaids” was looking to take on “Bridget Jones 3,” it didn’t quite make sense to us. Given that the helmer had a world of opportunity open up for him, it seemed strange he would take on the third instalment of a pretty tepid franchise as his followup. We figured that maybe he had a unique approach that would put his stamp on the material, but whatever he was planning, that’s now all in the past as Deadline report Feig has bailed on the movie.
While the split is being described as amicable by all, apparently despite Feig developing the script, the producers want to get a British director to helm the picture. Of course, why the man behind the camera has to be from the U.K. but the movie can be led by Renée Zellweger makes no sense to us, but whatever. And speaking of the actress, while nobody is locked down just yet, Zellweger along with Colin Firth and Hugh Grant are all said to be “eager to return,” though we’ll see how that plays out. Grant is typically fussy and persnickety about movie roles and working in general and considering he’s now filming “Cloud Atlas,” him moving to “Bridget Jones 3” for a proposed January start would be in his world like running a marathon. But it is guaranteed to be a pretty easy moneymaker for everybody involved, so we won’t be too surprised if everyone from the original cast decides to hang out again.
As for Feig, he’s not hurting for movies to do and frankly, we’d rather see him tackle one of the many movies he’s got brewing including: “Dumb Jock” with Melissa McCarthy, which may or may not also star Jon Hamm; another mystery project he’s writing with Judd Apatow to produce; as well as a mystery franchise that Feig said this summer he’ll be rebooting. So lots of options, but one potential movie you can’t bank on just yet? “Bridesmaids 2.”
Recently, Hamm indicated that Kirsten Wiig isn’t too hot on the idea, and Deadline confirms this but notes that Universal is very keen on a followup and are hoping to sway the actress (or maybe they’ll just go ahead and do a sequel/spinoff without her). So we’ll have to wait and see where Feig goes next, but we hope he goes forward with his own material rather than latching on to some franchise or sequel. Hopefully, we’ll soon find out.