52 Films Directed By Women Vol 1: 59. BRIDGET JONES’S BABY (Director: Sharon Maguire)
The Bridget Jones trilogy ( Diary, Edge , Baby ) is the only franchise to be directed by a woman. A woman director can set up a franchise (Catherine Hardwicke, Twilight ; Sam Taylor-Johnson, 50 Shades of Grey ; Anne Fletcher, Step Up ) but if it makes money, a fella gets to take over. Maybe these directors wanted to develop their respective franchises in exciting ways, only for the money men to say, ‘forget it, we want the same movie, only sexier’. Channing Tatum owes his career to Anne Fletcher; without Step Up , there would be no Magic Mike . That might be one of the reasons that Magic Mike has been embraced as a feminist text. The money men should trust the smarts of woman directors a little more – they cast men exceptionally well. This brings us to Bridget Jones’s Baby in which the eponymous diary writer hasn’t become an author. I was surprised. You write a diary – a novel is the next logical step. Salman Rushdie, who appeared in the first movie, could have been a major h...