Breaking Baz: Renée Zellweger, As Irresistible Rom-Com Heroine Bridget Jones, Is Getting A Statue In Central London

EXCLUSIVE: Bridget Jones, Helen Fielding’s beloved madcap heroine immortalized in four celebrated romantic comedies by Oscar winner Renée Zellweger, will be monumentalized with a statue in London’s Leicester Square, as Working Title co-chairman Eric Fellner tells Deadline that a fifth Bridget Jones movie would be “a wonderful idea.”

“Unbelievably and a first for Working Title, we’re getting a statue of one of our most loved characters in bronze being put in Leicester Square and that’s very exciting,” says Fellner, who runs Working Title with co-chairman Tim Bevan.

The statue, designed by London-based 3D Eye, will be unveiled at a ceremony with Zellweger in attendance on November 17.  “I’ll definitely be there as well,” says Fellner, laughing.

Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, the fourth instalment in the Universal/ Working Title Bridget Jones franchise — also starring Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, The Old Guard) and Leo Woodall (The White Lotus, Nuremberg) as Bridget’s beaus and directed by Michael Morris — had its world premiere at the Odeon Luxe, Leicester Square, an area long synonymous with London’s film industry, last February, located just yards from where the Bridget Jones image will be introduced as part of the district’s Scenes in the Square movie statue trail.

It will join previous pieces placed on the trail such as Daniel Kaluuya’s character Chris Washington in director Jordan Peele’s Universal movie Get Out, Mary Poppins, Gene Kelly in Singin’ In the Rain, Batman, Paddington and Wonder Woman.

Sally Phillips, who plays Shazzer, Bridget’s loyal friend, will host next month’s unveiling. Bridget’s beaus Ejiofor and Woodall are also expected to be on parade to support Zellweger.

The normally unflappable Fellner admits to being “over excited” because “we’ve never had anything like that before. And I think it’s great because Bridget’s a proper London heroine and the idea of having Bridget ever present in a brilliant location in the center of London is really exciting.”

Chuffed, Fellner boasts that “this is the first time they’ve had a romantic comedy character.”

Also, the honor comes as the 25th anniversary of the release of first movie, Bridget Jones’s Diary, approaches next year. That film introduced Zellweger, a native Texan, in the title role, with Hugh Grant and Colin Firth as the men in her life. I recall seeing the actress around town in the run-up to shooting the first picture, practicing her ever so slightly posh Brit accent on unsuspecting Londoners. In the films, Zellweger has charmed us all with a portrait of comedic genius.

Along with subsequent movies Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Bridget Jones’s Baby and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, the franchise has earned $900 million worldwide. 

Universal released the latest iteration direct-to-Peacock domestically, while releasing it theatrically overseas. 

By March, my colleague Nancy Tartaglione was reporting that Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy had crossed the $100 million mark at the international box office.

Fellner saluted Fielding for having created “a brilliant character” in the Independent newspaper in 1995. “I love the idea that her brilliant writing in a newspaper 30 years ago ends up as a statue in Leicester Square. It’s kind of gorgeous,” he adds.

Zellweger hasn’t been shy about expressing her desire to slip into her Bridget persona one more time. “I’ll never be done with Bridget Jones … so Helen might, you know, spark to something …” the star cooed into Deadline’s mic at the lavish pink-carpeted premiere for the supposed final chapter in the Bridget Jones story. 

“If Helen writes something then, well, I’m in,” Zellweger shared with us later during an interview.

“Well, how great would that be? I think it would be a wonderful idea,” Fellner comments when I raise the subject.

However, he cautions that the other films were based on Fielding’s already published columns and bestselling novels. “There isn’t a book for a fifth film, so there’s no natural storyline. But if there’s a great idea, if Helen has a great idea, then it would be amazing to do it. So I think we’ve just got to see what occurs,” Fellner explains.

Scenes in the Square is an initiative run by Discover Leicester Square and supported by Westminster Council. Originally all fields, the development of the square, and the source of its name, came between 1632 and 1636 with the construction of Leicester House, a mansion built by Robert Sidney, Earl of Leicester. The fields were laid out as the Earl’s private garden.

The area has a storied history with George, the then Prince of Wales, having moved into Leicester House after being booted out of St. James’s Palace by his father, George I.

Upon succeeding George I in 1727, George II was proclaimed King at the gates to his house in the square.

A fitting place indeed for a statue of Hollywood royalty, Renée Zellweger as the irresistible Bridget Jones.