‘Bad Santa 2’ Is Coming, Along With Billy Bob Thornton

I loves me some Bad Santa. This 2003 black comedy from Terry Zwigoff is my kind of Christmas movie: Dirty, silly, funny, raunchy, vulgar, offensive, and did I mention dirty? It’s also got a surprisingly sweet heart buried deep (deep) beneath its surface of bad language and mall Santas having sex with random women in department store changing rooms. It’s quite lovely.

Billy Bob Thornton starred as Willie Soke, a safecracker who poses as a mall Santa to facilitate his yearly heists. He hates children, hates his life, hates basically everything, and spews bile (not literally) at everyone he comes in contact with. Here’s just a small sample of his wit and wisdom, which should be considered NSFW (unless you work in a mall with extreme lax attitudes towards vulgarity, possibly as a poorly-behaved Santa).

Bad Santa is pretty much a perfect movie, and a perfect role for Thornton, who’s talked for years about his eagerness to make a sequel. At least three or four years ago, I interviewed him at South By Southwest for some other project, and he said back then Bad Santa 2 was definitely in the works. Now, almost half a decade later, it finally seems to be happening, as Miramax and Broad Green Pictures announced yesterday that they were partnering to put Thornton back in his ratty, dirty, possibly urine-soaked Santa costume for Bad Santa 2. From the press release:

‘We’ve been waiting far too long to see Billy Bob’s Willie Soke mess with the holiday season in his own unique way,’ said Zanne Devine, Miramax’s EVP of Film & TV. ‘We couldn’t be more excited to partner with Billy Bob, the entire creative and producing team, and Broad Green and Sierra/Affinity to bring back the outrageous humor and characters that made this movie brand iconic in the first place.’

Bad Santa 2 wouldn’t work without Thornton, so it’s great he’s going to be on board. But he’ll need a strong creative team too, and at least at the moment, there isn’t much of one in place for the sequel. The first movie was directed by Terry Zwigoff, and co-written by the Coen brothers. None have signed on for Bad Santa 2 (and none probably will), so Billy Bob’s going to need some talented help ruining Willie Soke’s life once again.