Ever since he donned a dirty red suit and smoked, shagged and swore his way into our hearts in 2004’s Bad Santa, there have been rumours about Billy Bob Thornton pulling the furry get-up back on again for a sequel. Well, now, according to The Wrap, those rumours have been replaced by solid talks on the subject, with the Weinstein Company looking to get Thornton back on board.

"We feel that it’s a Christmas perennial for the R-rated crowd," a Weinstein Company spokesperson told the site. "Everyone loves the character and Billy Bob’s excited to be in talks with us."

It’s not that much of a surprise – Thornton has long talked about how he loved the character’s no-holds-barred attitude and would be happy to come back. And he even let slip about moves to actually make it happen while at the SXSW film fest. Plus, last December, the freshly sold Miramax announced it would be working up sequels to many of its library titles and had plans to team up with the Weinsteins to get another Bad Santa grumping through development.

So hopefully they’ll come up with a decent follow-up that would allow the criminal Claus to get away with even more outrageous behaviour. There’s no info on whether Terry Zwigoff will direct again or whether the script will be written by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, who have since gone on to healthy writing/directing careers…