Hey, great! Two old franchises still won’t have to die! Seven years after its critically panned second installment, Bridget Jones is getting another go while the books’ author, Helen Fielding, works on her third story in the series. And Justin Lin, who turned down Die Hard 5 in favor of Fast and Furious 6, will be taking on the fifth Terminator movie. Man, can you smell the crossover potential? I can. And it smells like neurotic, paranoid, chain-smoking robots.
Despite the bad critical reception for Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, the sequel to 2001’s Bridget Jones’ Diary made almost as much money when it was released in 2004 and was hardly a box office failure. So last year, when Mark Darcy himself Colin Firth mentioned the possibility of a a third movie — and even a storyline — the rumblings began before this official announcement was made. He told Access Hollywood at the time:
“I can tell you that Bridget and Mark can’t have children, I think that’s the way it goes on … So then she makes the huge mistake of going back to Daniel Cleaver [Hugh Grant‘s character] for long enough to get pregnant. And I think he dumps her, and she’s left stranded, and guess who comes back to rescue her?”
Entertainment Weekly confirmed the news with Working Title Films, but there is no official mention of Renee Zellweger reprising her role as Ms. Jones. Should we assume this is a given? Some outlets are reporting her return, but it doesn’t seem guaranteed just yet.
What is guaranteed, however, is that Arnold Schwarzenegger is returning for a fifth Terminator movie, albeit without its original director/producer James Cameron. However, Cameron and the former Governator have met with the new director, Justin Lin, who is rightly excited about the prospect of just that conversation, let alone taking over the movie:
‘Terminator’ is something I’ve been having a lot of fun with. Just even this week, I had a great meeting with Arnold and James Cameron, just sitting down unofficially. And James is so gracious because he’s not part of the project, he’s not going to be producing, but it was great of him just as a filmmaker to take time out to just talk …
… [I]f I’m going to be kind of the gatekeeper to it, I want to make sure that I can hopefully build it up the right way – and so far that’s been the most fun. Just to be able to take James Cameron’s brain and for him to be so open even though he has no stakes in it, just as a human being, that’s something that I will always remember as a part of my journey as a filmmaker.
As of now, and unlike the Bridget Jones sequel, there is no story set yet for the next Terminator movie. But what about Firth’s cryptic quote about who Bridget will turn to if she can’t have a baby with Darcy? Can we please open up the possibilities for one John Connor? Come on, fanfic community! Look at that top pic! Let’s get on this yesterday!
(Entertainment Weekly, /Film via Nerd Bastards)
Published: Aug 12, 2011 12:33 pm