The new movie “is in development” and filming will start before the end of the year, production company Working Title told Hollywood magazine Variety last night.
Renee, 40, has yet to confirm she will take on the lead role again, but producers are said to be “desperate” to secure the star, who made the part her own in 2001 and again in 2004.
If svelte Renee does accept the lead again it will mean she will have to pile on the pounds.
The star went from a size 8 to a size 14 for the first film, by giving up exercise and eating everything she wanted.
Working Title says the project is in its “very early stages”.
According to Variety, the next film could be based on newspaper columns that author Helen Fielding wrote in 2005 and 2006 and which appeared in a national newspaper.
The fictional columns saw publishing executive Bridget, now in her 40s, moving on in life and attempting to have a baby.
The first two films were based on books of the same name by Helen Fielding and focused on Bridget’s eternal quest to lose weight, give up smoking and find a husband. Renee was Oscar-nominated for her role in the first Bridget Jones film, Bridget Jones’s Diary.
The hugely-popular comedy, which co-starred Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, took nearly £173million worldwide.
The follow-up, Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason, made £160million worldwide when it came out three years later.