‘Bridget Jones 3’ In The Works

Renee Zellweger may have to start packing on the pounds again.

According to Variety, Working Title Films is developing a third movie in the franchise about the quirky, big-underwear donning book-assistant-turned-television journalist Bridget Jones, played by Renee Zellweger. Production on the next film is not expected to begin until late 2010.

British author Helen Fielding’s first two books — “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason” — provided the plots for the first two films.

The third is expected to take inspiration from a series of columns the author wrote in the U.K.‘s Independent newspaper in 2005, which saw a 40-something Bridget becoming concerned with having a child, Variety reported.

“Bridget Jones’s Diary,” which co-starred Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, took in nearly $282 million worldwide at the box office following its release in 2001. The 2004 follow-up, which also co-starred Grant and Firth, took in over $262 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.

Zellweger famously gained 20 pounds to play Bridget by loading up on her favorite foods.

“Can I just tell you my body is whacked by the time we finish one of those,” she told Britain’s Daily Mail back in 2007. “It doesn’t know what has happened because it thinks there’s supposed to be a baby and there’s no christening.”