Billy Bob Thornton in talks for Bad Santa sequel

Bad Santa was (and remains) the perfect antidote for holiday-season saccharine overdoses.

If you've seen the filthily funny 2003 comedy, it'll likely hold a place in your regular Christmas viewing, and now it looks like there could be another one on the way.

According to The Wrap, The Weinstein Company are in in discussions with Billy Bob Thornton to reprise his role as Willie in a follow-up.

It's not just wishful whispers either, as a Weinstein spokesperson revealed: "We feel that it’s a Christmas perennial for the R-rated crowd.

"Everyone loves the character and Billy Bob’s excited to be in talks with us."

Fingers crossed that Billy Bob can be convinced to return. Equally important though, is the need to get a decent script together.

The first movie saw Thornton's burgling department store Father Christmas have a slight change of heart after spending some time with a loveable fat kid he chances upon.

It'll be interesting to see what direction they could take the sequel in without resorting to a straightforward retread of the original, but as long as Thornton's sweary St. Nick is involved, we'll be excited about this.

Matt Maytum is the former Editor of Total Film magazine. Over the past decade, Matt has worked in various roles for TF online and in print, including at GamesRadar+. Bucket-list-ticking career highlights have included reporting from the set of Tenet and Avengers: Infinity War, as well as covering Comic-Con, TIFF and the Sundance Film Festival.