Former Grey's Anatomy star Patrick Dempsey set to join Renée Zellweger and Colin Firth in Bridget Jones's Baby

By Dailymail.com Reporter

Published: 18:20 EST, 9 September 2015 | Updated: 19:15 EST, 9 September 2015

Bridget Jones might want to check her pulse. 

As Dr McDreamy Patrick Dempsey is in final negotiations to join the cast of the third installment of her diaries, reports Deadline on Wednesday. 

The 49-year-old Grey's Anatomy star looks set to star alongside Renée Zellweger as she reprises her role as the mishap-prone British publishing executive as she enters her 40s, according to the publication.

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New role: Patrick Dempsey is in final negotiations to join the cast of the third installment of Bridget Jones's Diaries, reports Deadline on Wednesday

New role: Patrick Dempsey is in final negotiations to join the cast of the third installment of Bridget Jones's Diaries, reports Deadline on Wednesday

Plot details are being kept under wraps although the title - Bridget Jones's Baby - does offer a major clue as to the direction it might be taking as Bridget does find herself unexpectedly expecting. 

The story is understood to be based on columns written by creator Helen Fielding and not her latest novel, Mad About The Boy - in which Bridget has a couple of children and Colin Firth's character has died.

In fact, Firth is returning as love interest Mark Darcy but Hugh Grant's Daniel Cleaver is absent from the movie. 

Iconic: The 49-year-old Grey's Anatomy star looks set to star alongside Renée Zellweger as she reprises her role as the mishap-prone British publishing executive as she enters her 40s

It leaves it open for a love-triangle situation with Firth and Dempsey's characters and Bridget which could have viewers asking 'who's the daddy?' 

Certainly if the love-rivalry theme continues - as per the first two films - then speculation on the plot is over who might be the father, if and when the identity is revealed. 

Director Sharon Maguire, who was at the helm of the first Bridget Jones's Diary in 2001 - will also be returning to her chair. 

Helen Fielding wrote the screenplay with One Day's David Nicholls, and production is set to start in the UK on October 2nd.

Awkward: It leaves it open for a love-triangle situation with Firth (pictured right) and Dempsey's characters and Bridget which could have viewers asking 'who's the daddy?'

Awkward: It leaves it open for a love-triangle situation with Firth (pictured right) and Dempsey's characters and Bridget which could have viewers asking 'who's the daddy?'

Patrick's last big-screen role was Transformers: Dark Of The Moon in 2011. 

Off screen his love-life has had a touch of drama of his own - his wife of sixteen years filed for divorce in January of this year, and they have three children together - daughter Talula, 13, and twin sons Sullivan and Darby, 8. 

It's his second marriage, he wed acting coach Rochelle Parker when he was 21 and she was 48, in 1987, they divorced in 1994 and she passed away last year. 

Fans were shocked when his beloved character Dr David Shepherd was killed off in Grey's Anatomy in April, after being involved in a car crash that left him brain dead, resulting in his wife Meredith being forced to make the heartbreaking decision to take him off life support.

Killed off: Patrick played surgeon Dr David Shepherd in Grey's Anatomy 

Killed off: Patrick played surgeon Dr David Shepherd in Grey's Anatomy 

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