Movie reviews, production notes, and more! - "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason"

Movie : Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason

- Notes provided by Universal Pictures - At long last Bridget Jones (RENÉE ZELLWEGER ) - 30-something, self-doubting, self-analyzing, career-minded, calorie-counting London singleton - has found romantic bliss. For six glorious weeks (71 ecstatic shags), she has been the girlfriend of the exquisitely flawless human rights lawyer Mark Darcy (COLIN FIRTH) and nothing could be better. Or-could it? Despite Darcy's apparent devotion, Bridget still finds herself asking questions about life, love and the proper way to put away underwear. Having finally found her man, Bridget is faced with the equally flummoxing challenge of keeping him. She can't help but wonder: what exactly is it that comes after the happily ever after? And just as she's starting to figure it all out, enter the competition: Darcy's drop-dead, legs-up-to-there, never-says-the-wrong-thing new colleague. Suddenly jealousy, uncertainty and temptation - in the form of Bridget's former boss and womanizing heart-throb Daniel Cleaver (HUGH GRANT) - threaten to upend Bridget's dream in a comic maze of bad advice, silly mix-ups and total disasters that could only happen to her. In a story that travels from the streets of London to the slopes of the Alps and the shores of Thailand - and finds Bridget skydiving (or falling), skiing (sort of) and going straight to jail (all a big mistake, really) - Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason takes our beloved Bridget on a hilarious and unexpected new journey as she navigates the treacherous territory of modern love without ever losing her inimitable sense of humor. Academy Award® winner Renée Zellweger (Chicago, Cold Mountain) reprises the role that brought the actress her very first Oscar® nomination, alongside Bridget Jones's Diary alumni Hugh Grant (Love Actually, About a Boy) as the irresistible Daniel Cleaver and Colin Firth (Girl With a Pearl Earring, Love Actually) as the dashing Mark Darcy, all under the direction of BEEBAN KIDRON (To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar, Antonia and Jane) from a screenplay written by ANDREW DAVIES (Bridget Jones's Diary, television's Pride and Prejudice), HELEN FIELDING (novelist of both Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason), RICHARD CURTIS (Love Actually, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill) and ADAM BROOKS (Wimbledon, French Kiss). The film is produced by Working Title's (Love Actually, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral) TIM BEVAN and ERIC FELLNER, and JONATHAN CAVENDISH (Bridget Jones's Diary, Gangster No. 1). Working Title's DEBRA HAYWARD and LIZA CHASIN serve as the executive producers. Also reprising their Bridget Jones roles are Oscar® winner JIM BROADBENT (Iris, Moulin Rouge!) as Bridget's long-suffering Dad; GEMMA JONES (Shanghai Knights, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) as Bridget's unabashed Mum; Bridget's loyal friends Jude, Shazzer and Tom, played respectively by SHIRLEY HENDERSON (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Trainspotting), SALLY PHILLIPS (Birthday Girl, television's Smack the Pony) and JAMES CALLIS (Bridget Jones's Diary, television's Victoria & Albert); CELIA IMRIE (Calendar Girls, Hilary and Jackie) as Mum's best friend Una; and NEIL PEARSON (Bridget Jones's Diary, Fever Pitch) as Bridget's television news boss Richard Finch. Joining the cast is JACINDA BARRETT (Ladder 49, The Human Stain) as Mark's oft-mentioned new colleague Rebecca and JESSICA STEVENSON (Shaun of the Dead, Born Romantic) as Bridget's smug married friend Magda. Creating Bridget's world behind-the-camera is a team that includes director of photography ADRIAN BIDDLE, B.S.C. (Shanghai Knights, The Mummy Returns), editor GREG HAYDEN (Austin Powers in Goldmember, Zoolander), production designer GEMMA JACKSON (Bridget Jones's Diary, Finding Neverland) and costume designer JANY TEMIME (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban). The music is by HARRY GREGSON-WILLIAMS (Shrek, Chicken Run). Romantic Fantasy (V. Good) Meets Romantic Reality (Horrors): Tackling a New and V. Different Chapter in Bridget Jones's Life "Bridget Jones is a love pariah no more!" -Bridget Jones When novelist Helen Fielding first created the character of Bridget Jones, she caused a sensation by revealing to the world a contemporary single woman's secret diary. Therein, Bridget revealed in devastatingly witty, unabashedly uncensored dialogue the inner-most desires of "singletons" everywherenamely to be thin, clever, cigarette-free, unavoidably sexy and, most of all, deeply loved one day in the near future. The gamely struggling, perpetually in crisis character of Bridget soon evolved into far more than just an acclaimed novel's heroine-she became a cultural phenomenon and quintessential symbol of flummoxed yet fervently hopeful single women everywhere. The subsequent film version of Bridget Jones's Diary soared with moviegoers around the globe, eventually grossing more than $280 million worldwide, establishing the film as one of the biggest British motion pictures ever made and the titular character as a heroine (of sorts) for her times. Yet, despite all the success, Fielding felt Ms. Jones had more stories to tell. The author decided to take Bridget on a new journey - transporting her from her previous state of rampant romantic fantasy directly into the confusion and chaos of romantic reality. With Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (written before the film version of Bridget Jones's Diary was made and published in 2000), Fielding brought Bridget back, just as chubby, error-prone, cigarette-yearning and overwhelmed by modern life as ever, but suddenly in possession of the one thing for which she'd so fervently wished-a gorgeous, adoring boyfriend and the giddy delirium of infatuation. It seemed perfect. But Fielding knew that, after just a few weeks of fairytale romance, Bridget would have to face the morning-after question that haunts all contemporary romantics: how do you make love work once you've managed to do the impossible and find it? The resulting story, which took Bridget not only into her first serious romantic entanglement, but also into laugh-out-loud new career challenges and an unexpected scrape with the law in Thailand, was another run-away bestseller, which the San Francisco Chronicle noted "outshines its predecessor." Meanwhile, the producers who brought Bridget Jones's Diary to the screen-and subsequently optioned Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason based on the extraordinary appeal of the character-saw the new book as an opportunity to tell an entirely different comic tale with Bridget at the center. "We had no idea in the beginning what the reaction to Bridget Jones would be," notes producer Eric Fellner, "so we were absolutely thrilled that so many people took the character to heart. With Edge of Reason, there was an unusual chance to look at a well-loved character in a new way. Bridget has always been about dreams and fantasies, but now that she's actually got a boyfriend, she's faced with trying to live with a more messy reality. I think what Fielding - and Bridget - do so brilliantly in this new story about her is create a picture of a woman who faces all the adversity of love and still manages to mostly laugh at it all while coming around to a better understanding." Adds producer Jonathan Cavendish: "It was a bit terrifying to make this film, because we knew ahead of time that there would be so much expectation, and that so many people all over the world feel that they have a personal relationship with Bridget. But we were confident that this is a different film - it's still very funny in that Bridget way, but it addresses issues about love and happiness. There are some familiar elements that audiences will recognize, but also shocks and surprises." In searching for a director to take a fresh look at Bridget Jones, the producers were keen to find a passionate and stylish woman who would bring her own perspective to the story. They found what they were seeking in Beeban Kidron, who first drew critical acclaim with her BAFTA-winning film Oranges are Not the Only Fruit and has gone on to direct such films as the critically admired British comedy Antonia and Jane, Used People (starring Shirley MacLaine and Marcello Mastroianni) and the Golden Globe-nominated To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. The director was already in thrall with the famous character. "The thing I like so much about Bridget Jones is that there's a little bit of Bridget in us all," says Kidron. "She says what many of us are secretly thinking and she fears the same absurd things we all fear and she muddles through life the same way everybody feels that they do, yet she manages to be incredibly funny, observant and touching through it all. Her latest obsession in life is one that occupies a great many of us, men and women alike: what do you have to do to have a successful relationship? Bridget starts out with this fantasy ideal of perfect love with a perfect man, without any conflict. She seems to think that she herself has to be perfect, but the harder she tries, the worse things get." For Kidron, watching Bridget take on the new dilemma of being a single woman in love proved to be especially alluring. She explains: "I think for me one of the most interesting things about Edge of Reason is that we get to see Bridget really maturing into someone who realizes that perfection isn't at all that counts in loveit's caring, kindness, understandingall those other grown-up things. Bridget is growing up in this movie, but she's growing up in her own hilarious way." Coming at the project with her own enthusiasm and perspective, Kidron never really looked back to the first episode of Bridget's story. "I think it really was an advantage that I had nothing to do with the first movie, because this way I didn't ever have to concern myself with trying to repeat the magic of that experience," she notes. "I simply was thinking about how to make this particular story into a film in the best way possible and focused on moving forward into a new part of Bridget's life." Bridget is Back: Renée Zellweger Revisits a Bridget Jones on the Edge of Change "Bridget Jones has cocked things up for the last time." -Bridget Jones Once Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason got underway, one lingering question lay at the very heart of the project: would Academy Award®-winning actress Renée Zellweger return to the role she created to so much acclaim-gaining the requisite weight, re-assuming the British accent and embodying Bridget's hilariously ill-fated yet familiar quest to keep her life on an even keel-in Bridget Jones's Diary? For Zellweger, the answer required some careful deliberation. In the end, however, she found that her devotion to Bridget Jones as a character is what ultimately brought her back to the role. "It took me some time to get comfortable with the idea of bringing the character back to life," admits Zellweger. "I knew it would be a lot of fun to do it again, so that was never the issue. It was simply that I love this character so much that I felt a strong personal responsibility to protect her and preserve the integrity of who she is. She was such a blessing in my life and she's so special to so many people around the world that I didn't want to do anything that could compromise her or how people feel about her. "I'm motivated by telling stories that have not been told before and I felt that there was so much of Bridget's experience that hadn't yet been explored," she continues. "When we began the new phase of Bridget's journey, I realized that what we were embarking upon was not a simply a sequel, in which similar ground is re-tread, but that we were moving forward creatively and watching a new chapter in the life of Bridget Jones unfold. That, to me, was a very interesting challenge. It is rare to have the opportunity to revisit a character who has in some way evolved. It was a little scary, too, because I knew that it would be an entirely new process of discovery. This Bridget has definitely grown up in certain respects-she is less naïve, a little more worldly-and yet she is still wonderfully flawed, which is, in large part, why people relate to Bridget and what makes the character beloved." Zellweger was particularly attracted to the idea of making a romantic comedy that explores the reality of how truly difficult it is to make relationships work, no matter how blissed-out one might be in the beginning. "I'd never seen a day-to-day account of all the challenges that surface when a person finds that her idealized, perfect relationship is, in reality, not so perfect after all. I thought it could be very amusing to watch Bridget Jones, in particular, explore these experiences in love." Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason finds Bridget throwing herself into a new relationship and new career challenges (not to mention out of a plane), always certain that happiness and success are just around the next corner. This ever-hopeful aspect of Bridget is what Zellweger believes makes the eternally accident-prone character a modern heroine. "One of the things that is so wonderful about Bridget is that no matter how many times she falls on her face, she remains incredibly optimistic," she observes. "She starts out at the beginning of this story determined to be successful in love and as a journalist and she just can't imagine what could possibly go wronguntil it all does." Jumping into the project on the heels of playing a hard-scrabble rural Southerner in Cold Mountain (and winning an Oscar® for Best Supporting Actress in the process), Zellweger also faced the challenge of getting physically and mentally prepared to play the un-thin, style-challenged, self-deprecating Brit who, for all practical purposes, is the svelte American's polar opposite. Having left her British accent by the wayside, Zellweger had to start essentially from scratch to redevelop it. And then, of course, came the crux of playing Bridget Jones: the weight gain needed to account for Bridget's constant obsession with her ever-so-slight extra layer of fat (or fat units, as Bridget is known to say). Having bloomed from a size 6 dress to a size 14 once before and lost it, Zellweger was ready to do it again. "For me, it's a necessary part of an honest portrayal of who Bridget is," notes the actress. "If I can't be her in body as well as in spirit, then what would be the point?" In addition to the "weight work," Zellweger also prepared to do her own stunts which, as Bridget gets more and more outrageous newsroom assignments, include parachuting into a pig pen in a garish yellow and orange flight suit. "That was a hilarious day," recalls Zellweger, "a day on which I learned more about pigs than I ever wanted to know!" In other scenes, Zellweger also had to side step, slide and tumble down an Austrian ski mountain; perform a vamping Madonna imitation in a Bangkok jail; and waddle across the room wearing a skintight gold lame dress that impedes all hip movement. "For me, this role was a great chance to do physical comedy," she comments. "A vital element of being Bridget is expressing her physically. The way she always manages to fall down, flail around and somehow get back up no matter how embarrassed she might be is part of the essence of who she is. The portrait of her wouldn't be complete without that." The Boys of Bridget: Hugh Grant and Colin Firth Return for a Re-Match "Ever do it in the dark with a total stranger? OK, maybe not a total stranger..." -Daniel Cleaver In Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Bridget is not only in love, but trapped between two men who represent starkly different sides of her romantic impulses: on the one side is the entirely too-good-to-be-true human rights lawyer, gentleman extraordinaire and possible marriage candidate Mark Darcy, played by the consummately romantic Colin Firth; and on the other is the far-too-bad-to-resist cynic and inexplicably sexy cad Daniel Cleaver, once again portrayed with comic suavity by Hugh Grant. Both men relished the idea of returning to their acclaimed roles and getting the chance to explore these characters and their relationships with Bridget more deeply. For Colin Firth, Edge of Reason was a chance to unravel Mark Darcy's fairytale-like demeanor. This time around, he took the previously unflappable Darcy (modeled after the handsome and haughty love interest of the same name in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice-a character he made his own with his indelible performance in the 1995 miniseries) and let him squirm as he comes to terms, step by dizzying step, with his true feelings for Bridget Jones. For as seemingly tolerant, brilliant and adoring as Darcy is, he also reveals himself to be a recalcitrant neat freak, resistant to change and less than a genius at understanding his heart. Firth sees this new Bridget Jones chapter as taking a playful wrench to the typical gauzy and starry-eyed movie romance. "There's a reason why romantic fairytales end where they do, because if they went on, they would start to get messy, if not completely grisly," he laughs. "But we all know that the reality is quite different. We know that the things that first attract you to a person are the same things that later drive you crazy. We know that two people who come from completely different social backgrounds are not going to be able to help but judge one another. And, because Edge of Reason addresses these things, I think that this film creates a portrait of a relationship that is very comical yet also quite alive and quite real." Firth has always been fascinated by Darcy's affection for Bridget, which reminds him of many real-life relationships he has witnessed between seeming unmatchable opposites who ignite when they come together. "Bridget and Mark are certainly not a likely pairing," he says, "but I think there are lots of people who are attracted to one another for unfathomable reasons. I think Mark doesn't exactly know why he's fallen in love with Bridget, but for one thing, I think he finds her honesty very refreshing. He comes from such a high-powered world of appearances that he is secretly thrilled by her almost complete inability to be fake or to show any sort of guile whatsoever. And he also enjoys her wit and cleverness-even if it's simply watching her dig her way out of disastrous situations!" Some of those "disastrous situations" are the direct result of Bridget's own doubts and petty jealousies-feelings not confined to the female side of the burgeoning relationship. Darcy himself falls occasional prey to the greener end of the romantic emotional spectrum-particularly when it comes to a certain suave former boss from his girlfriend's past. And in the grand tradition of British chivalry, these conflicting suitors just can't seem to meet without some kind of (really fairly pathetic) fisticuffs ensuing. Indeed, picking up a comic refrain from the first Bridget Jones film, Darcy and Cleaver have yet another raging run-in with each other that devolves into perhaps the least skillful, least violent and most drenching extended fight sequence seen in recent cinema. This farcical climactic scene was entirely ab-libbed by Firth and Hugh Grant, without so much as a choreographed move or a minute's rehearsal. Says producer Jonathan Cavendish: "I'm here to tell you that Colin and Hugh are the two worst fighters I've ever seen - which is why they are absolutely hilarious in this scene." "The funny thing is that Hugh and I have only ever worked with each other in these fight sequences," observes Firth. "But we made the decision right away this time not to stage anything. We simply showed up that morning and started pulling each other's hair, kicking at one another, flailing about and complaining, and it all came completely naturally to me, I have to say. "Meanwhile, I believe Hugh asked for the nurse several times, as well as hot water bottles and various medications," Firth jokes. "But seriously, I think this is a ritual these guys are always going to go through-they'll be fighting like this when they're 103. I guess you could say that the Daniel and Mark story will always unfold on a physical playground." Adds Hugh Grant: "Middle-class Englishmen don't fight at all really, and when they do it's a pretty pitiful sight-girly, messy, unbutch-and that's what we were trying to capture." Grant, who went to town creating the simpering, sleazy and yet somehow indescribably seductive Daniel Cleaver for the first Bridget Jones film, returns to create a Cleaver who claims he has radically changed, despite being perhaps even more deliciously depraved than ever. Although Cleaver's role in Helen Fielding's novel of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason was limited, the screenwriters expanded it for the film to reflect how vital the Hugh Grant character has become in eliciting the susceptible side of Bridget Jones. They brought Cleaver and Bridget back into close contact by making them journalistic partners on a new travel television show ironically entitled The Smooth Guide. Needless to say, Bridget's latest liaison with Cleaver turns out to be anything but smooth. Though she begins by calling him "a deceitful, arrogant, sexist, low-minded, disgusting specimen of humanity," she winds up in a Bangkok hotel room with that same specimen nevertheless, though with an unexpected outcome. Grant found that upon returning to the role of Cleaver he had all too little trouble sliding back under the character's skin. "I don't think I'm quite as black as Cleaver is in his soul, but I certainly share some of the same tastes and frailties," Grant offers. For Beeban Kidron, Grant provides the dark comic heart of the film. "Hugh in the role of Cleaver is just mesmerizing," she states. "He's a really exciting actor to watch because he actually works very, very hard in contrast to the often laconic characters he plays to whom everything comes so easily. He also has an amazing sense of comedy timing. But, most of all, I think he captures the indescribable essence of that bad boy women desire - the man we don't want to marry but, in Bridget's language, we definitely want to shag." Leggy Colleagues, Badly-Behaved Parents and Friends with Appalling Advice: Welcome to Bridget's World "Saw him just an hour ago, going into his house with little Rebecca Gillies. Only 22, legs up to there, and Daddy owns half of Scotland..." -Bridget Jones Bridget Jones's budding romance is further complicated and nearly blown to bits by a supporting cast of characters who add an array of comic complications to the story of Edge of Reason. A new and key addition to the story is the character of Rebecca, Mark Darcy's mysterious young colleague, who couldn't be prettier, richer, leggier or more threatening to Bridget's idea of romantic bliss. Convinced Rebecca has her eyes, if not more, on Darcy, Bridget has no idea how to defuse the situation, especially because she believes Rebecca is precisely the person Mark wishes Bridget could be in his dreams. To play Rebecca, the filmmakers chose rising Australian star Jacinda Barrett, who was thrilled to be part of an episode in Bridget Jones's life. "I read both the books, saw the first movie and was just so excited to be part of this," she says. "For me, the best part of it all was getting the chance to watch Renée. She brings so much fearlessness to this part. I found myself watching her through Rebecca's eyes as she stumbles and makes a fool of herself and puts her foot in her mouth, and found her to be both inspiring and incredibly adorable." Says Colin Firth of Jacinda Barrett's performance: "The fun part about Rebecca is that she isn't quite what she seems. I think it's one of those roles where the audience will be able to go back a second time and trace the exact moments, the little glances, the subtle signals Jacinda gives that they missed the first time around." Even as Bridget battles jealousy and struggles to make sense of her own affairs of the heart, she finds that her famously incompatible parents are re-lighting their own romantic torch. Though her mother is as embarrassingly effusive and her father as put-upon and bewildered as ever, even Bridget has to admit they seem to be showing signs of true love after all this time. Reprising their roles as Mr. and Mrs. Jones, Bridget's Dad and Mum, are Jim Broadbent and Gemma Jones. Says Broadbent: "What's lovely about Bridget's parents in this story is that they realize that things might never be ideal between them, but things would be far worse without one another." Adds Jones, "I think Pam has finally come around to realizing he's actually a good bloke, her husband." Adding further comic input to Bridget's situation are her loyal friends, who provide Bridget with lots and lots of well-intentioned but stunningly bad counselwhich grows even more disastrous when it comes to Mark Darcy. For Sally Phllips, Shirley Henderson and James Callis (who respectively return as Shazzer, Jude and Tom), taking part in another Bridget Jones adventure was a chance for more joyous fun. "We're the typical drunk, useless friends who are full of awful advice," sums up Henderson. "And now that Bridget is going out with someone new, which is the ultimate treachery among urban friends, we of course make it relatively difficult for her to get anywhere. We simply increase her paranoia and neuroses!" Adds Callis: "I think in a way, these three live vicariously through Bridget, but unfortunately with her being in a new relationship, that means her every move is going to get raked over and analyzed, and not at all professionally." Summarizes Sally Philips, whose character Shazzer accompanies Bridget on her tumultuous trip to Bangkok: "The most wonderful part of playing Bridget's friends is the way in which we all feed so naturally off each other. There's a very real sort of friends dynamic that has emerged between us all that makes the laughter more real." Finally, returning once again in the role of Bridget's heartless, ratings-chasing boss Richard Finch (who sends Bridget into increasingly perilous and ridiculous assignments for the show Sit Up Britain) is Neil Pearson. "Richard sees Bridget solely from a ratings point of view," explains Pearson. "He knows people watch her because they're waiting for disaster to strike, so it's his job to come up with more and more preposterous things for her to do." Pearson also sees his character as having a unique role in the film - as the one person who hasn't altered himself even a single iota from the first story. "He is the only character who has not progressed, has not grown emotionally and is still the same stunted lech he was before - but luckily everyone else has moved on in life!" A Globe-Hopping Production (or, Around the World, Bridget Jones-Style) "All my life I've had the feeling that something terrible might happen . . . and now it has." -Bridget Jones In Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, the consummate London Girl finds herself far from home, jetting off to Austria for a romantic ski weekend that goes downhill fast and then making her way to Thailand, where she encounters sun, surf, Daniel Cleaver's attempts at seduction and a run of tourist's bad luck that lands her in a Third World jail cell. To capture this whirlwind journey around the world which leads to romantic epiphany, director Beeban Kidran worked closely with director of photography Adrian Biddle and production designer Gemma Jackson to forge a clean, classy, but eminently modern design for the film that suits both Bridget and her new travels. Kidron saw the film as taking Bridget Jones's colorful little corner of London and suddenly expanding it outwards, giving Bridget a much bigger, splashier taste of life. "The story begins in London, and there you are immersed in Bridget's world, where she meets her friends in restaurants, goes to work at Sit Up Britain and has embarrassing little family gatherings-and it's the familiar place for her," she explains. "But very quickly she is taken out of her element, going to Austria on a mini-ski-break, and then even farther afield to Thailand, so we had a chance to show what Bridget is like in the broader world. I saw it as sort of 'Bridget Jones as James Bond'-she has the kind of international adventures only Bridget could have. Yet by going so far from home, this allows her to look at her life and feelings for Darcy in a new way." For the London sequences, Kidron and crew shot at such classic locations as Tower Bridge, Oxford and Regent streets, Piccadilly, The Temple (London's legal district) and Chiswick (where a sleek modern office building was transformed into the Sit Up Britain headquarters). Another familiar sight to London visitors are the Italian Fountains in Hyde Park, which form the backdrop for Mark Darcy and Daniel Cleaver's epic water fight. The parachuting sequence was shot near Buckinghamshire and resulted in Renée Zellweger being suspended off a 20-foot crane by wires and spending hours in a mud-splashed pig pen - all work she did herself. "Renée impressed me right away with her willingness to not only do her own stunt work, but to fall over, put her face into the mud and cavort with animals," laughs Kidron. Meanwhile, Bridget's flat was recreated on an Ealing soundstage, with production designer Gemma Jackson adding just a few new touches to the design she first created for Bridget Jones's Diarynamely an even vaster collection of self-help books! "We really wanted to keep the look of Bridget's flat the same, because it's so reflective of her," she explains. "It has the look of a place that belongs to someone who's searching. There's no particular style - instead it's filled with different ideas she's had along the way. Ever since the first film, people have told me, 'Oh, you must have seen my bedroom,' so I think a lot of single women can relate." But this time Jackson had a new task: contrasting Bridget's abode with Mark Darcy's much statelier, yet stuffier, home. "I think there's a lot to be seen about the differences between Bridget and Mark from their homes," says Jackson. "Bridget's is a warm, comfortable place, a bit messy perhaps, but filled with color and life and things she has picked up on her adventures along the way. Mark, on the other hand, has a rather empty, proper house that isn't comfy or cozy. It's serviceable and has some nice heirlooms, but we didn't put any soul into it because that's what he finds in Bridget." Darcy does manage to work up the courage to ask Bridget on her first ever mini-ski-break - then breaks the mood by also inviting Bridget's nemesis, Rebecca, who of course flows downs the slopes like a rosy-cheeked pro. This portion of the story was shot in Austria's Tyrol mountains using the famed, glamorous ski resort and alpine village at Lech. For the skiing sequences themselves, the camera equipment was towed by Snowcats halfway up the high-altitude ski mountain. Meanwhile, Renée Zellweger had to concentrate on making her way down the mountain in disastrous Bridget style. "Renée volunteered to do the skiing but, at first, we brought in a very experienced skier and stunt womanonly to realize it just wasn't right," recalls Beeban Kidron. "Renée has a unique body language for Bridget that is so comedic and so much a part of the role that we had to let her do the stunts. She proved to be very, very brave. She enjoyed herself doing that out-of-control slalom down the mountain. Fantastic. Actually, I was completely shamed by her, because I ended up taking the lift down to the bottom!" In Thailand, the filmmakers found an environment at the other extreme from drizzly, urban London. "We went from rain and miserable grayness to glorious blue skies and vast beaches," comments Kidron. "Cinematically, it was great to suddenly have these wide, open landscapes that provided such a contrast to Bridget's usual habitat. It was a whole new look for the film and whole new perspective for Bridget." Locations in Thailand included the idyllic beach resort of Phuket; the 200-year-old Muslim village-on-stilts at Ko Panyee; the ancient Buddhist shrine at Nakornpathom; and a bustling, open-air Bangkok market rife with fruits, fabrics and crafts, not to mention scorpions and snakes. For several of the Phuket beach scenes, including the one in which Bridget, experiencing the effects of a "magic mushroom" entrée, wades into the ocean on a wave of bliss, the camera crew was situated in traditional Thai boats. "This did get a bit challenging because the boatmen didn't speak English and they would wind up rowing right when we needed them to go left!" recalls Kidron. "But it all worked out in the end." In the stilt village of Ko Panyee, Gemma Jackson and her crew designed a Thai-style restaurant with a stunning view, where Bridget is momentarily swept away during a disturbingly romantic dinner with Daniel Cleaver. Jackson wanted the scene to be right out of a tropical dream. "In the spot where we wanted to put the restaurant, there was only a concrete foundation-no roof, no walls, nothing except an empty slab of concrete," explains Jackson. "So we had our work cut out for us. We built a restaurant in the basic Thai architectural style from scratch - we put in the floor, we built the roof, we created the whole thing from the bottom up, which was quite a logistical nightmare because we were so far from any supplies. We had to use whatever we could find locally, but it was worth it because it really looked fantastic in the end." Jackson also found herself re-decorating a roadside Thai market. Having found one in Bangkok just outside a spectacular pagoda that Beeban Kidron loved, Jackson made it even more visually exciting. "We simply bought out the stalls that were selling duller items and put in more stalls with beautiful decorations and masses of flowers and handmade things," she explains. "And then we added stalls with some shocking items like chicken heads and fish parts just to emphasize the exoticness of what you find in Thailand." But Jackson's biggest challenge lay in designing the Thai jail cell in which Bridget finds herself. To keep their set authentic, Jackson and Kidron visited several prisons in Thailand, finding a spotless, rather cheery prison in Phuket and a far more sordid, grim and infamously harsh prison in Bangkok. They made the decision to aim for something in between the two extremes. "Beeban and I wanted it to seem real but not too extreme," says Jackson. "The idea was that Bridget gets pushed just far enough to find some belief in herself." Kidron interjects, "But we were conscious that to deal with the reality of Thai jail life would be completely inappropriate in a romantic comedy." In keeping with romantic comedy trumping reality, Bridget finds herself sharing her indomitable spirit with the other women in the jail in an unexpected Madonna-inspired dance numberwhich further required Jackson to design floating walls to accommodate the unusual shoot. "This part was a lot of fun," says Jackson. "We wanted the jail to at first have a sense of gloomy reality and loneliness but in the big dance number, it becomes transformed into something very Bridget." For Renée Zellweger, the jail scenes-as well as Bridget's triumphant return to London with a reinvigorated sense of what love is-demonstrate the way Bridget Jones always manages to rise above the absurdity of modern circumstances. "I hoped that Bridget Jones would in some way have the resonance of the Lucille Ball character I grew up with," Zellweger summarizes. "This is something I have cherished about this role as I try to recognize my own imperfections and laugh at them the way she does. I see Bridget as much like all of us, perpetually moving on to a new phase of life, always growing a little wiser but forever keeping that same essence that makes her so . . . Bridget." Universal Pictures and StudioCanal and Miramax Films present A Working Title Production: Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, starring Jim Broadbent, Gemma Jones. The costume designer is Jany Temime. The music is by Harry Gregson-Williams. The production designer is Gemma Jackson. The editor is Greg Hayden; the director of photography, Adrian Biddle, B.S.C. The line producer is Bernard Bellew. The executive producers are Debra Hayward and Liza Chasin. Based on the novel by Helen Fielding, the screenplay is by Andrew Davies and Helen Fielding and Richard Curtis and Adam Brooks. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason is produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Jonathan Cavendish and directed by Beeban Kidron. ©2004 Universal Studios www.bridgetjonesmovie.com About the Cast Renée Zellweger (Bridget Jones) won this year's Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actress in the role of the rough-hewn Ruby in Anthony Minghella's Civil War epic Cold Mountain. In 2003, her outstanding portrayal of Roxie Hart in the smash hit musical Chicago garnered her widespread critical acclaim and an Oscar® nomination for Best Actress. In addition, she won the 2003 Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Lead Role as well as a 2003 Golden Globe Award for Lead Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Zellweger was also nominated for a BAFTA Award for Lead Actress. Zellweger recently lent her voice to the DreamWorks animated comedy Shark Tale, joining an all-star cast including Jack Black, James Gandolfini, Angelina Jolie, Martin Scorsese and Will Smith. Her forthcoming films include Cinderella Man, opposite Russell Crowe for Oscar®-winning director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer. The role of Bridget Jones began for Zellweger with 2001's runaway hit Bridget Jones's Diary, for which Renée was nominated for a 2002 Academy Award® for Best Actress, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actor's Guild Award, among many others. Her recent films also include Down With Love, a satirical homage to the 1960s sex comedies that starred Rock Hudson and Doris Day, alongside Ewan McGregor. Considering that she took her first acting class to ensure graduating from the University of Texas with a literature degree, Zellweger's rise to leading lady status has been rapid and continually met with praise. After appearing in such television projects as the USA Network telefilm A Taste for Killing and the Showtime Drive-In Classics series Shake, Rattle and Rock, she made her film debut while still in Austin in Richard Linklater's coming-of-age film Dazed and Confused. This was followed by Ben Stiller's Reality Bites, Love and a .45 (for which she received her first Independent Spirit Award nomination), 8 Seconds, The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Empire Records and My Boyfriend's Back. Her other film credits include 20th Century Fox's comedy Me, Myself, and Irene, directed by the Farrelly brothers starring opposite Jim Carrey; The Bachelor, a romantic comedy in which she stars opposite Chris O'Donnell; and director Neil LaBute's dark comedy Nurse Betty, with Chris Rock and Morgan Freeman, for which she won a 2000 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical. Renée also starred in Universal's critically acclaimed One True Thing, with William Hurt and Meryl Streep, and opposite Robin Wright-Penn and Michelle Pfeiffer in White Oleander. She received acclaim for her vulnerable performance opposite Tom Cruise in Cameron Crowe's Jerry Maguire, which also earned her Best Breakthrough Performer of 1996 by the National Board of Review, a Blockbuster Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy and a SAG Award nomination. Hugh Grant (Daniel Cleaver) has been acting for 20 years. Most recently, Grant was seen in the ensemble film Love Actually, Richard Curtis' directorial debut; he starred in the romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice with Sandra Bullock, and the critically acclaimed About a Boy, for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination. Grant's other recent film credits include Bridget Jones's Diary, the highest grossing movie in British film history at the time of release, which also starred Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth, and Woody Allen's comedy Small Time Crooks with Tracey Ullman, Jon Lovitz and Allen. In 1999, Grant starred in the box office hit Notting Hill with Julia Roberts, for which he earned a Golden Globe nomination. Later the same year, Grant appeared alongside Jeanne Tripplehorn and James Cann in Mickey Blue Eyes. The romantic comedy was the second feature film from Simian Films, the company he set up with Elizabeth Hurley. Grant also starred in Extreme Measures with Gene Hackman, the first feature film from Simian Films. In 1994, Grant became an international star when he appeared in Four Weddings and a Funeral, directed by Mike Newell and co-starring Andie MacDowell, for which Grant won both a Golden Globe and a British Academy Award. In the same year he also starred in Roman Polanski's Bitter Moon opposite Kristin Scott Thomas, as well as in Sirens, directed by John Duigan. Grant first came to notice in 1982 while at Oxford University when he made the movie Privileged. But it was in the 1987 Merchant-Ivory production of Maurice, E.M. Forster's account of a young man at the turn of the century confronting his homosexuality, that Grant first received international acclaim, as well as a best actor award at the Venice Film Festival. This led to a succession of roles including The Dawning with Anthony Hopkins, Ken Russell's The Lair of the White Worm, The Big Man opposite Joanne Whalley-Kilmer and the role of Chopin in James Lapine's Impromptu. Grant was reunited with director James Ivory in 1993 for his pivotal role as a journalist in The Remains of the Day, starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. In 1995, Grant appeared as Edward Ferrars in the Oscar®-winning adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, as a nervous father-to-be in Chris Columbus' Nine Months with Julianne Moore and Robin Williams, and in the critically acclaimed The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain, written and directed by Christopher Monger. He was also seen in the British comedy An Awfully Big Adventure, directed by Mike Newell, and had a cameo role in the 17th century romp Restoration. Among Grant's other film credits are White Mischief, Bengali Nights and Rowing in the Wind. A classically trained British theater actor, Colin Firth (Mark Darcy) is a veteran of numerous television and film roles. Most recently, Firth was seen in the Lions Gate film Girl With a Pearl Earring. Based on the best-selling novel by Tracy Chevalier, Firth portrayed the 17th century artist Johannes Vermeer opposite Scarlett Johansson and Tom Wilkinson. Girl With a Pearl Earring screened at the Telluride Film Festival, the Toronto Film Festival, the Hollywood Film Festival, the London Film Festival and the San Sebastian Film Festival. The film won both the L'Hitchcock d'Or and the L'Hitchcock d'Argent at the Dinard Festival of British Films. In October 2003, Firth appeared in the Universal Pictures/Working Title release Love Actually, written and directed by Richard Curtis, appearing in the film with an outstanding ensemble cast that included Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney and Keira Knightly. Love Actually broke box office records as the highest grossing British romantic comedy opening of all time in the U.K. and Ireland and is the largest opening in the history of Working Title Films to date. Firth has just wrapped production on the Universal/Working Title film, Nanny McPhee, written by and also starring Emma Thompson. Firth portrays Mr. Brown, a widowed father with a tribe of unruly children who become enchanted by a magical nanny (Thompson). The film is scheduled for release in the Spring of 2005. Firth has also completed production on the independent psychological thriller Trauma, opposite Mena Suvari. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2004 and was released by Warner Bros. in the U.K. on August 17, 2004. The film also screened at the Edinburgh Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival. Firth is currently in production with Atom Egoyan's Where the Truth Lies, opposite Kevin Bacon. Adapted from the acclaimed novel of the same name, the story follows the breakup of a celebrated comedy duo surrounding a mysterious murder and the journalist who seeks to solve the mystery. In 2001, Firth charmed American audiences when he starred opposite Renée Zellwegger in the hit British comedy Bridget Jones's Diary. In the film he portrayed Mark Darcy, the man who rivals Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) for Bridget's affections. In 2002, Firth was seen starring opposite Rupert Everett and Reese Witherspoon in the Miramax film, The Importance of Being Earnest. In 1998, Firth starred in Shakespeare in Love, where he portrayed Lord Wessex, the evil intended husband to Violet De Lesseps, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. In 1996, Firth appeared in the multi-Oscar® nominated film, The English Patient, opposite Kristen Scott Thomas and Ralph Fiennes. His other film credits include What a Girl Wants, Hope Springs, Relative Values, A Thousand Acres (with Michelle Pfeiffer and Jessica Lange), Apartment Zero, My Life So Far, The Secret Laughter of Women, Fever Pitch, Circle of Friends, Playmaker and the title role in Milos Forman's Valmont (opposite Annette Bening). On the small screen, Firth is infamous for his 1995 breakout role, when he played Mr. Darcy in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, for which he received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actor and legions of female admirers. Firth's most recent television appearance was as the host of NBC's Saturday Night Live in March 2004. He was nominated for an Emmy Award in 2001 for Outstanding Supporting Actor in the critically acclaimed HBO film Conspiracy and has also received the Royal Television Society Best Actor Award and a BAFTA nomination for his work in Tumbledown. His other television credits include Windmills on the Clyde: Making Donovan Quick, Donovan Quick, The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd, Deep Blue Sea, Hostages and the mini-series Nostromo. He made his London stage debut in the West End production of Another Country playing Bennett; he was then chosen to play the character Judd in the 1984 film adaptation opposite Rupert Everett. Colin Firth resides in London, England with his wife, Livia Giuggiola, and their two children. Jim Broadbent (Dad) won the Academy Award® and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor for his moving portrait of John Bayley, Iris Murdoch's loyal husband, in Richard Eyre's Iris, starring opposite Judi Dench. He most recently starred in Mira Nair's screen adaptation of Vanity Fair with Reese Witherspoon. Broadbent first played Bridget Jones's father in Bridget Jones's Diary. Among his many other films are Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits and Brazil; Mike Newell's The Good Father and Enchanted April; Neil Jordan's The Crying Game; Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway; Richard Loncraine's Richard III and The Gathering Storm (for HBO, which brought him another Golden Globe Award nomination as well as an Emmy Award nomination); Mark Herman's Little Voice; Baz Luhrmann's Academy Award®-winning Moulin Rouge!; Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York; Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things; and Frank Coraci's Around the World in 80 Days. He has collaborated several times with acclaimed filmmaker Mike Leigh, starring for him in Life is Sweet, the Academy Award®-winning Topsy-Turvy, the drama Vera Drake (which nabbed the Golden Lion for Best Film at the Venice International Film Festival) and the short feature A Sense of History (which Broadbent also wrote). Broadbent's work in the theater includes Sam Mendes' Donmar Warehouse production of Habeas Corpus. Richard Eyre directed him in the Royal Court production of Kafka's Dick and in the National Theatre production of The Government Inspector. He was a longtime member of the National Theatre of Brent, appearing in productions of The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Complete Guide to Sex and The Messiah. Most recently, he starred in the National Theater staging of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman, directed by John Crowley. He is also a frequent presence on U.K. television, starring in a variety of projects over the years, ranging from Tales of the Unexpected to Blackadder to Inspector Morse. Gemma Jones (Mum) has had an equally remarkable career on the stage and on the screen. Her film credits have included Shanghai Nights, in the role of Queen Victoria; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, in the role of Madame Pomfrey; first starring as Bridget's mother in Bridget Jones's Diary; and No News From God, a Spanish film with Penelope Cruz and Fanny Ardent. Other film credits include Ken Russell's The Devils; The Feast Of July with Ben Chaplin; Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet; Wilde with Jude Law and Stephen Fry; and David Mamet's The Winslow Boy. Jones' television work is equally prolific and includes her highly acclaimed performance as The Duchess of Duke Street, as well as Ingmar Bergman's The Lie; Nina in The Seagull; Portia in The Merchant of Venice; and Mrs. Fairfax in Jane Eyre, with Samantha Morton. More recently she was seen in Inspector Morse, Jim Henson's The Storyteller, Wycliffe, The Borrowers and the BAFTA-award winning Longitude, directed by Charles Sturridge. Jones was trained at the Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts where she won the Gold Medal in 1962 and has been a member of both the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her extensive theatre credits include innumerable roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and in London's West End. Most recently, she was seen in the acclaimed West End revival of Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Anthony Page. Jacinda Barrett (Rebecca) has burst upon the scene and left an indelible mark as a beautiful and extremely talented performer in a relatively short span of time. Barrett was most recently seen opposite Joaquin Phoenix and John Travolta in Disney's Ladder 49. Written by Lewis Colick and directed by Jay Russell, Ladder 49 follows the story of a firefighter (Phoenix) who awaits rescue from a burning building and while there, reflects on his career, his wife Linda (Barrett) and his family. Previously Barrett could be seen starring in Miramax's The Human Stain, opposite Nicole Kidman, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Ed Harris and directed by Robert Benton. Barrett recently wrapped the independent film Mr. Ripley Returns, directed by Roger Spottiswoode, in which she stars opposite Willem Dafoe and Barry Pepper. Barrett got her start in her hometown of Brisbane, Australia. She studied acting at the British Academy of Dramatic Art in Oxford, England, an experience she used in her first film project, Dave Semel's Campfire Tales. Additional film credits include Immaculate Springs, Dominique Faix and Art House. Her television credits include Dick Wolf's WB series D.C. and John Wells' series Citizen Baines for CBS. Barrett recently earned her piloting license to fly single engine airplanes. Sally Phillips (Shazzer) is perhaps best known to British television audiences for the award-winning, innovative comedy sketch show Smack the Pony, which she wrote and in which she also co-starred, as well as her portrayal of the giggling receptionist in I'm Alan Partridge. In addition to Bridget Jones's Diary, her film credits include Churchill: The Hollywood Years, Gladiatress, Mean Machine, Birthday Girl, Born Romantic and the forthcoming children's film Tooth. Shirley Henderson (Jude) grew up in Fife, Scotland and by the age of 13 was singing in a boxing ring between bouts after winning a local singing competition. She went on to sing in the local working men's clubs on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons. After deciding upon acting as a career, she went to London to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She embarked upon a stage career that included spells at the National Theatre under the direction of Peter Hall, the Royal Court, the Traverse, Hampstead, the Citizens, Shared Experience and most recently in Anna Weiss at the Whitehall Theatre under the direction of Michael Attenborough. Her first on-screen break saw her playing opposite Robert Carlyle in the popular TV series Hamish Macbeth, which led to roles in Rob Roy and Trainspotting. In 1999 Michael Winterbottom cast Shirley in his film Wonderland. This sparked an ongoing relationship which continued with her performances in The Claim and 24 Hour Party People. She also worked with Mike Leigh, playing Leonora Braham in the acclaimed Topsy-Turvy. She then first starred as Jude in Bridget Jones's Diary. Other credits include a much lauded production of Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now for television (garnering her a nomination for a Royal Television Society Award for Best Actress); Shane Meadows' ode to spaghetti westerns, Once Upon a Time in the Midlands; Dr. Sleep with Goran Visnjic; Frank van Passel's Villa Des Roses, for which she received a British Independent Film Award nomination; Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, for which she was awarded the Best Actress Award at the Bordeaux Film Festival in 2003; and the Scottish comedy American Cousins. Henderson was also surprised and delighted to be cast as the tragic Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets, a role she will reprise in Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire. She most recently starred with Colin Farrell in Intermission, spent 2 months in Prague filming the lavish BBC Production Charles II: The Power and The Passion and played pivotal roles in Sally Potter's new film Yes and in Alison Peebles' Edinburgh Festival Audience Award Winner, Afterlife. Forthcoming projects include her first leading role in Juliet McKoen's Frozen and Dirty Filthy Love. James Callis (Tom) will soon be seen starring in the SCI FI Channel's new series Battlestar Gallactica, opposite Edward James Olmos and Mary McDonnell, and was recently seen in the USA Network miniseries Helen of Troy. The London-born Callis studied English and Related Literature at the University of York. After graduating in 1993, he gained a place at the renowned London Academy of Music & Dramatic Arts, from which he graduated in 1996. Since then, he has appeared in various West End stage productions as well in film and on television and radio. He made his West End debut in Old Wicked Songs alongside Bob Hoskins in 1996, earning the London Critics' Circle's Jack Tinker Award for Most Promising Newcomer. Other theater roles include The Doctor's Dilemma at the Almeida in London and Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight at the Soho Theatre in London. He broke into television in 1996 with a guest role on the British series Murder Most Horrid and with a recurring role in the long-running U.K. drama Soldier, Soldier. Callis went on to appear in a number of films and miniseries, including The Scarlet Pimpernel, Jason and the Argonauts and first played Bridget's pal Tom in Bridget Jones's Diary. He also co-wrote and co-directed the film Beginner's Luck, in which he starred opposite Julie Delpy. Jessica Stevenson (Magda) is perhaps best known to British television audiences for playing Cheryl in the massive British hit sitcom The Royle Family and as co-writer and co-star of the cult sitcom Spaced, for which she won the Best Female Comedy Newcomer Award in the British Comedy Awards 2000. She won Best Actress in the Comedy Awards 2001 for her performances in The Royle Family, Bob & Rose and Spaced. Recently she appeared in the BBC film Tomorrow La Scala, for which she was nominated as Best Actress in the 2003 BAFTA Awards. Feature film credits include the recent U.K. hit Shaun of the Dead, Born Romantic, Swing Kids and Peter Greenaway's Baby of Macon. Other television credits include Randall & Hopkirk Deceased, House of Eliot and 6 Pairs of Pants. Stevenson recently appeared in The Night Heron, a Jez Butterworth play at the Royal Court, opposite Ray Winstone, and for which she received a nomination for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in 2003 Oliver Awards. Neil Pearson (Richard Finch) originated the role of Bridget's boss in Bridget Jones's Diary. After training at the Central School for Speech and Drama, Pearson spent the 1980s working in the theatre and playing small television roles. His breakout role came in 1990 as Dave in the award-winning British television show Drop the Dead Donkey, a topical sitcom set in the newsroom of a fictional television station, followed by the lead in the highly acclaimed and award-winning television police drama series Between the Lines. More recent television credits include The Booze Cruise, Murder in Mind and Armadillo. His feature film credits also include Fever Pitch and Privates on Parade. About The Filmmakers Beeban Kidron (Director) first drew critical acclaim with her 1990 BAFTA award-winning television drama for the BBC, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, based on the Jeanette Winterson novel, and later released as a feature film in the U.S. Also in 1990, she directed another critically admired comedy about two life-long rivals, Antonia and Jane (Miramax), starring Saskia Reeves and Imelda Staunton. Her first major Hollywood picture, Used People (1992), starred Shirley MacLaine and Marcello Mastroianni and garnered both Golden Globe nominations. This was followed by the controversial Hookers, Hustlers, Pimps and Their Johns. In 1993 she directed Great Moments in Aviation, starring Vanessa Redgrave, John Hurt and Jonathan Pryce, followed by To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, starring Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo; both Swayze and Leguizamo were nominated for Golden Globe Awards for Best Performance by an Actor in a Comedy/Musical. Earlier feature film credits include Swept From the Sea, starring Vincent Perez, Sir Ian McKellen and Rachel Weisz, and Vroom, starring Diana Quick, David Thewlis and Clive Owen. Additional television credits include Murder (with Julie Walters), Cinderella (with Kathleen Turner), Itch, Carry Greenham Home, Love at First Sight and Eve Arnold, A Portrait. Before becoming a filmmaker Kidron worked as a waitress, dancing girl, courier, gallery and shop worker. She has been taking photographs since the age of 11 and was "discovered" at age 13 by Magnum photographer Eve Arnold. Co-chaired by Tim Bevan (Producer) and Eric Fellner (Producer) since its establishment in 1982, Working Title Films is Europe's leading film production company. The company has produced more than 70 films with a combined worldwide gross in excess of two-and-a-half billion dollars and won four Academy Awards®, 20 British Academy Awards and numerous prizes at the Cannes and Berlin Film Festivals. This year, the company was awarded the prestigious Michael Balcon BAFTA Award for its outstanding contribution to the British Film Industry. Working Title Films' credits include the hugely successful romantic comedies Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones's Diary and Love Actually, all starring Hugh Grant and written by Richard Curtis. Curtis also made his directorial debut with Love Actually. The company also has a long association with the Coen brothers, having made five films together, including the Academy Award®-winning Fargo; The Hudsucker Proxy; The Big Lebowski; O Brother, Where Are Thou?; and The Man Who Wasn't There, which won Joel Coen the Best Director prize at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. Noted for its discerning eye and for intelligent and entertaining narratives, Working Title is also known for searching out and adapting successful and original books. Stephen Frears brought Nick Hornby's High Fidelity to the screen and Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz did the same with Hornby's About a Boy. Other notable adaptations include the original Bridget Jones's Diary from Helen Fielding's bestseller; John Madden's adaptation of Louis de Bernieres' Captain Corelli's Mandolin, starring Nicolas Cage and Penelope Cruz; Tim Robbins' Dead Man Walking, from the book by Helen Prejean, which starred Oscar® winners Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn; and the children's classic The Borrowers, directed by Peter Hewitt and based on the books of Mary Norton. The company's credits also include Elizabeth, Bean, 40 Days and 40 Nights, The Guru, Johnny English, Ned Kelly, The Shape of Things and Thunderbirds, the live-action adventure film based on the television series of the 1960s. Working Title most recently saw the release of Wimbledon, directed by Richard Loncraine and starring Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany. Forthcoming productions include the suspenseful thriller The Interpreter, directed by Academy Award® winner Sydney Pollack starring Oscar® winners Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn; Nanny McPhee, directed by Kirk Jones, written by Oscar® winner Emma Thompson and starring Thompson, Colin Firth and Angela Lansbury; the adventure drama Everest, directed by Stephen Daldry (The Hours, Billy Elliot); and Pride and Prejudice, with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen heading an ensemble cast that also includes Brenda Blethyn, Donald Sutherland, Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone, Tom Hollander, Penelope Wilton and Dame Judi Dench. In 1999, WT² was formed to produce Working Title's lower budget films. Its first film, Billy Elliot, directed by Stephen Daldry, became an international commercial and critical hit. The division, headed by Natascha Wharton, has since made Ali G Indahouse, starring Sacha Baron Cohen, as well as Long Time Dead and My Little Eye. This year, the division's releases include The Calcium Kid, starring Orlando Bloom; Shaun of the Dead, a romantic zombie comedy directed by Edgar Wright starring Simon Pegg; Mickybo & Me, directed by Terry Loane and starring Julie Walters, Ciaran Hinds, Adrian Dunbar and Gina McKee; and Inside I'm Dancing, directed by Damien O'Donnell and starring Romola Garai, James McAvoy and Steven Robertson. Jonathan Cavendish (Producer) is joint managing director of Little Bird and has served as producer on many feature films including the original Bridget Jones's Diary, as well as Gangster No. 1, directed by Paul McGuigan and starring Malcolm McDowell and Paul Bettany; Ordinary Decent Criminal, starring Kevin Spacey, Linda Fiorentino, Peter Mullan and directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan; Croupier, starring Clive Owen and directed by Mike Hodges; Nothing Personal, directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan and starring James Frain and Ian Hart; Into the West, directed by Mike Newell and starring Ellen Barkin and Gabriel Byrne, which won Best European Film at six international film festivals; and December Bride, directed by Thaddeus O'Sullivan and starring Donal McCann and Saskia Reeves, which won 17 international awards including the Special Jury Prize at the European Film Awards. His most recent films include Marc Evan's psychological chiller Trauma, starring Colin Firth and Mena Suvari; Churchill: The Hollywood Years, written and directed by Peter Richardson; and The Key, a drama for the BBC directed by David Blair and written by Donna Franceschild. Cavendish has also produced or executive-produced several features and series for television, which include most recently The Many Lives of Albert Walker (2002), a drama based on extraordinary real events starring John Gordon Sinclair; Dirty Tricks (2000) for Carlton Television, starring Martin Clunes; All For Love (1998), a television film directed by Harry Hook and starring Anna Friel, Miranda Richardson and Richard E. Grant; The Writing on the Wall (1996), a television series starring Dennis Haysbert and William H. Macy; The Hanging Gale (1994), a television series starring the McGann Brothers and Michael Kitchen, which was nominated for four BAFTA awards including Best Serial; and In the Border Country, a television film starring Juliet Stevenson and Sean Bean, which won the Best Film Award at the Chicago Film Festival and Best Film at the BANFF TV Festival. Andrew Davies (Screenplay by), a BAFTA and Emmy Award winner, has been writing professionally since 1960. He began his career by writing radio plays and then moved into writing for television, films, theatre, novels and children's books. He is perhaps best known for his acclaimed screenplay of Pride and Prejudice for the BBC in 1995, with the adaptation receiving both the highest viewing figures of any BBC Classic Serial and the highest audience for any drama shown on the Arts & Entertainment Channel in the U.S. His feature film credits include Bridget Jones's Diary in 2001, a collaboration with Helen Fielding and Richard Curtis; the film of his novel, B Monkey, published in 1992, which was directed by Michael Radford; and his screenplay of Maeve Binchy's novel Circle of Friends, starring Chris O'Donnell and Minnie Driver. He is currently writing a feature film version of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, to be directed by David Yates and starring Jude Law. Recent television adaptations include the 2004 mini-series based on Anthony Trollope's He Knew He Was Right; the recent PBS mini-series of Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago; Daniel Deronda, based on George Elliot's novel; a contemporary version of Othello; 2002's Tipping the Velvet, from the Sarah Waters novel; Take a Girl Like You, a dramatization of the classic Kingsley Amis novel (2001); The Taylor of Panama, based on John Le Carre's screenplay (2001); Moll Flanders, starring Alex Kingston (1999); Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters, also in 1999; A Rather English Marriage, based on the novel by Angela Lambert, which was selected for the 1998 London Film Festival and screened by the BBC in December of the same year; Vanity Fair and Getting Hurt from his own novel, both in '98; Emma in '97; and Wilderness in '96. Other television work includes the highly acclaimed dramatization for the BBC of George Elliot's Middlemarch in '94, which received rave reviews in both the U.K. and the U.S. Davies gained much attention for his widely praised trilogy House of Cards, To Play the King and The Final Cut. He also co-wrote the popular British sitcom Game On. Davies' stage play Prin enjoyed a very successful run at London's Lyric Theatre in 1989 and was also produced in New York, Australia and in rep. His earlier play, Rose, starring Glenda Jackson, played to full houses in London's West End and was subsequently produced on Broadway and in many other countries. Helen Fielding (Novel by / Screenplay by) was executive producer and co-writer on the first Bridget Jones movie and is the author of the novels Bridget Jones's Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, which together have sold over 15 million copies. Fielding worked in television at the BBC for many years and drew on her experiences on live news programs for many of Bridget Jones's escapades. In the late 1980s, she produced documentaries in Ethiopia, Sudan and Mozambique for Comic Relief. Her first novel, Cause Celeb, published in 1994, set in a refugee camp in Africa and her latest novel, Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination, which has been hitting worldwide bestseller lists over the last year, also draw on her experiences as a journalist overseas. After leaving the BBC, she wrote for the Sunday Times, Telegraph and the Independent, where Bridget Jones began her life as a weekly column. Richard Curtis (Screenplay by) was born in New Zealand in 1956 and raised in Manila, Stockholm, Folkestone and Warrington. He has now lived in London off and on for over 20 years. He began writing comedy after leaving Oxford University in 1978. He had worked with Rowan Atkinson there-and continued to do so. His first job on television was writing for all four series of Not the Nine O'Clock News for the BBC. He then went on to write the Blackadder series, a situation comedy set in four different eras of British history, always starring Rowan Atkinson in a different amusing haircut. The last three series were co-written with Ben Elton. During these years, Richard, Rowan and Ben staged two West End comedy revues and Richard wrote his first film, The Tall Guy, directed by Mel Smith and starring Jeff Goldblum, Emma Thompson (in her film debut) and Rowan Atkinson as a cruel heartless comedian starring in a West End show. The film was not autobiographical and was produced by Working Title with whom Richard always has worked since. Back on television, Richard and Rowan then began work on Mr. Bean, and continued for some years to make intermittent programs starring the man in the tie who says very little. In 1993, Richard wrote Bernard and the Genie, a wholesome Christmas fantasy starring Lenny Henry and Alan Cumming. In December 1993, Richard was awarded the Writers Guild of Great Britain Comedy Lifetime Achievement Award. His second film, Four Weddings and a Funeral, starring Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell, was directed by Mike Newell, produced by Duncan Kenworthy and released in March 1994. The film won a French Cesar, an Australian Academy Award and the BAFTA for Best Film. At the Academy Awards®, the film was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Film. In 1994, Richard was made an MBE and started writing The Vicar of Dibley, a situation comedy for the BBC, starring Dawn French as a female vicar in a small village suspiciously full of eccentric characters. The movie Bean, co-written with Robin Driscoll, directed by Mel Smith and starring Rowan Atkinson opened in Britain at the end of August 1997. It is about Mr. Bean's visit to America and has more dialogue in it than you would expect. His next film, Notting Hill, starred Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant and was released in May 1999 - and for a while was the highest earning British film ever. In 2001, Richard was co-writer of the award-winning screenplay Bridget Jones's Diary, starring Renée Zellweger, Colin Firth and a nasty Hugh Grant. His recently wrote and directed Love Actually, a story about lots of different kinds of love, set at Christmas and featuring 22 leading characters. Richard Curtis is co-founder and vice-chairman of Comic Relief, the organization which runs Red Nose Day in Britain. He has co-produced the live nights of Comic Relief for the BBC since 1987. Comic Relief has made over £325,000,000 for charity projects in Africa and the U.K. He is now working on the Make Poverty History 2005 campaign, concentrating on Trade Justice, more Aid, and Debt cancellation for the world's poorest countries. In 2000, he was made a CBE. Adam Brooks (Screenplay by) most recently co-wrote the Working Title release Wimbledon, directed by Richard Loncraine and starring Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany. Previous to that, he assumed both screenwriting and directing duties on the critically received The Invisible Circus, based on the novel by Jennifer Egan and starring Cameron Diaz. Brooks wrote the hit comedy French Kiss, starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline, and also co-wrote (with Richard LaGravenese and Akosua Busia) the screen adaptation of Nobel Prize Winner Toni Morrison's Beloved, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover and Thandie Newton. He has collaborated with director/actor Griffin Dunne on several projects: Brooks adapted the novel (along with Robin Swicord and Akiva Goldsman) for Dunne's Practical Magic; the pair co-wrote the Academy Award®-nominated short film Duke of Groove, which Dunne directed; and Brooks directed and penned the story for the Sundance Film Festival jury prize winner Almost You, which starred Dunne and Brooke Adams. Debra Hayward (Executive Producer) serves as Head of Film for Working Title Films and is creatively responsible for the company's entire slate of motion pictures in conjunction with her U.S. counterpart, Liza Chasin. Hayward joined Working Title in 1989 as a producer's assistant on such films as Fools of Fortune and Dakota Road and then moved to the development department, where she worked on such diverse films as 1991's London Kills Me and 1993's Map of the Human Heart. Hayward most recently served as executive producer on the romantic comedy Wimbledon (starring Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany) and serves in the same capacity on the upcoming Pride and Prejudice (with Keira Knightly heading an impressive ensemble cast). She also serves as co-producer on the soon-to-be-released suspenseful thriller The Interpreter, starring Academy Award® winners Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn and directed by Oscar® winner Syndey Pollack. Her most recent additional co-producer credits include Ned Kelly, starring Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom; Richard Curtis' worldwide hit Love Actually; the international hit Johnny English, starring Rowan Atkinson, Natalie Imbruglia and John Malkovich; and the award-winning About a Boy. She also recently executive-produced The Guru and 40 Days and 40 Nights. Hayward's additional co-producing credits include the worldwide smash Bridget Jones's Diary, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, the lauded Elizabeth, The Matchmaker and The Borrowers. As a development executive, she was instrumental in helping to bring such films as Notting Hill, Plunkett & Macleane, French Kiss, Moonlight and Valentino, Panther, Four Weddings and a Funeral and Posse to the screen. She also served as associate producer on Loch Ness. Liza Chasin (Executive Producer) has served as President of U.S. Production at Working Title Films since 1996. In addition to Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, Chasin serves as producer on the recent release Wimbledon (starring Kirsten Dunst and Paul Bettany) and on the upcoming Pride and Prejudice (starring Keira Knightley and an ensemble cast). Chasin is also co-producing The Interpreter, starring Academy Award® winners Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn and directed by Oscar® winner Sydney Pollack. Chasin also served as executive producer on the highly acclaimed Thirteen, which won the best director slot at the Sundance Film Festival for Catherine Hardwicke and stars Holly Hunter (in an Oscar®-nominated performance) and Evan Rachel Wood. She also recently co-produced Richard Curtis' worldwide hit, the ensemble romantic comedy Love Actually, and executive-produced the family adventure Thunderbirds. Over the past several years, Chasin has been involved in the development and production of such acclaimed films as Dead Man Walking, Fargo, Notting Hill and O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Chasin also served as co-producer of About a Boy, directed by Chris Weitz and Paul Weitz, starring Hugh Grant, Toni Colette and Rachel Weisz; Bridget Jones's Diary, starring Renée Zellweger; and High Fidelity, starring John Cusack. She also co-produced the Academy Award® and Golden Globe nominated critical success, Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett. A graduate of N.Y.U. Film School, Chasin first joined the company in 1991 as Director of Development. She was subsequently promoted to Vice President of Production and Development, becoming the head of the Los Angeles office for Working Title, overseeing the company's creative affairs in the U.S. Prior to joining Working Title Films, Chasin worked for several years in various production capacities in New York-based production companies. Adrian Biddle, B.S.C. (Director of Photography) won a number of prestigious awards in the field of television commercials before making his feature film debut as director of photography on James Cameron's Aliens. He then went on to light such films as The Princess Bride and Willow before working with director Ridley Scott on his acclaimed Thelma and Louise, for which Biddle received an Academy Award® nomination, as well as BAFTA and British Society of Cinematographers nominations. He received a further British Society of Cinematographers nomination for Scott's 1492 Conquest of Paradise. Most recently, Biddle photographed Peter Howitt's Laws of Attraction with Pierce Brosnan and Julianne Moore. His list of credits also includes David Dobkin's Shanghai Knights, Rob Bowman's Reign of Fire, Stephen Sommers' The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, Kevin Lima's 102 Dalmatians, Kathryn Bigelow's The Weight of Water, Michael Apted's The World Is Not Enough, Paul Henderson's Event Horizon, Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy (for which he won the European Cinematographer Year Award), Stephen Herek's 101 Dalmatians, Robert Young's Fierce Creatures, Danny Cannon's Judge Dredd, Paul Weiland's City Slickers II, Mel Smith's The Tall Guy and Rob Knight's The Dawning. Greg Hayden (Editor) has edited such films as Danny DeVito's Duplex (shared credit), Ben Stiller's Zoolander and Jay Roach's Austin Powers in Goldmember (shared credit). His additional credits as an additional editor or co-editor include Meet the Parents; Mystery, Alaska; Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me; Krippendorf's Tribe; The Beautician and the Beast; Dunston Checks In; Cabin Boy; Forever Young and Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken. Gemma Jackson (Production Designer) returns to Bridget Jones after having previously designed her world for Bridget Jones's Diary. Jackson has also had a collaborative relationship with David Mamet, with whom she has worked on three films: the recent Spartan, State and Maine and The Winslow Boy. Her feature film work also includes the acclaimed Iris, Killing Me Softly and most recently Finding Neverland, set in "Peter Pan" creator J.M. Barrie's England. Born in England, Jackson graduated from St. Martin's School of Art before completing a post-graduate course in theater design. Among her other credits as production designer are John Sayles' Limbo, Peter Hewitt's The Borrowers and Tom Sawyer, Mikael Salomon's A Far Off Place and Neil Jordan's The Miracle and Mona Lisa. As a child, Harry Gregson-Williams (Music by) toured extensively in Europe with an ensemble from the music school of St. John's College, Cambridge, and by age 13 had appeared as a soloist on over a dozen records. He went on to earn musical scholarships throughout his education, culminating in a coveted spot at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. After his formal education, Gregson-Williams taught music to young children, guiding many of his students to musical careers. He spent a year in Egypt working for the government, teaching disadvantaged children in Alexandria and Cairo, and six months in an inspirational program with similar aims in the Rift Valley in Kenya. It was during this time that his ear became sensitive to the rhythms and sounds of African music (which find their way into his work today). Moving to London, he sought out Stanley Myers, who recognized a kindred spirit in Gregson-Williams. As an orchestrator, arranger, and writer on many of Myers' subsequent films, he rapidly learned the techniques of film scoring and formed relationships with other top composers including Hans Zimmer, who had also previously been a protégé of Myers. It was a natural progression for Gregson-Williams to work with Zimmer on several projects that Zimmer scored and recorded in the U.K., such as The Lion King, Crimson Tide, Beyond Rangoon, K2 and Two Deaths. It was through his association with Stanley Myers that Gregson-Williams also became friends with legendary filmmaker Nicolas Roeg, composing his first major scores for Roeg's Full Body Massage (starring Brian Brown and Mimi Rogers) and Hotel Paradise (starring Vincent D'Onofrio and Theresa Russell). In 1995 Gregson-Williams moved to Los Angeles and quickly launched his career as a Hollywood composer by composing the score for Billie August's Smilla's Sense of Snow. Gregson-Williams next took on The Whole Wide World, a period romance starring Renée Zellweger and Vincent D'Onofrio and in 1996, he composed music for The Rock, forming a relationship with producer Jerry Bruckheimer, which has continued to this day. The following year found Gregson-Williams busy with a total of eight feature film projects, starting with Deceiver, a thriller directed by the Pate brothers; and The Replacement Killers, with Mira Sorvino and Asian superstar Chow Yun-Fat. The public was then treated to a very different Gregson-Williams score for The Borrowers, a live-action version of the classic English children's story. Gregson-Williams went on to team up with legendary rock guitarist Trevor Rabin for the scores to Armageddon and Enemy of the State for Jerry Bruckheimer. Following was the computer animated movie Antz. Then Gregson-Williams wrote a Celtic-themed score for The Match, a romantic comedy for director Mick Davis. All of these projects were in addition to composing selected cues for the animated The Price of Egypt. Gregson-Williams' diverse work continued with his scores to big studio films interspersed with smaller independent movies. In 1999 after completing the score for King of the Jungle, starring John Leguizamo and Rosie Perez, Gregson-Williams scored the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced TV movie, Swing Vote. He also simultaneously completed the independent film The Magic of Marciano, starring Nastassja Kinsky, and the urban drama Light It Up, produced by Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds. 2000 found Gregson-Williams scoring two of the year's most successful family films-The Tigger Movie and Chicken Run. He also composed the music for a British independent film, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith?. Later that year Konami approached Harry to write music for the video game Metal Gear Solid 2. Becoming a recognized and a highly sought-after talent in Hollywood, Gregson-Williams scored the animated feature Shrek and Tony Scott's feature Spy Game, featuring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. Later that year, he completed an album co-written with guitarist Peter Distefano (Porno for Pyros), which features vocalists Peter Murphy, Divine Styler, Miho Hatori, and Lizbeth Scott. Instrumentalists include Flea (Red Hot Chill Peppers) amongst others. Gregson-Williams' met director Joel Schummacher in 2002, which led him to scoring Phone Booth, starring Colin Farrell, and Veronica Guerin, starring Cate Blanchett. Most recently, Gregson-Williams has scored such films as the animated Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Peter Berg's The Rundown and Tony Scott's Man on Fire, as well as the television series Father of the Pride and the video game Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Upcoming projects include Bille August's Return to Sender, Eric Darnell's and Tom McGrath's animated Madagascar and Andrew Adamson's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe. Jany Temime (Costume Designer) most recently designed the costumes for the wizards and villains of Alfonso Cuaron's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and will perform the same task for the forthcoming Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire. Her other credits include Todd Komarnicki's Resistance, Mel Smith's High Heels and Low Lifes, Werner Herzog's Invincible, Marleen Gorris' The Luzhin Defence, Paul McGuigan's Gangster No. 1, Ed Thomas' Rancid Aluminum and Marc Evans' House of America, for which she won the BAFTA Wales Award for Best Costume Design. Additional credits include George Sluizer's The Commissioner and Marleen Gorris' Antonia's Line, which won the Academy Award® for Best Foreign Film, as well as the Golden Calf for Costume Design, Film Festival Utrecht. -bridget jones: the edge of reason- Official Web Site: http://www.bridgetjonesthemovie.com/ Back to main movie page Showing Today at: Click here for other showings