Bad Santa is the dark comedy that’s just perfect to show to friends and family during the Christmas holiday. Billy Bob Thornton, the film’s lead star, has been aching to get back and reprise his role for a sequel, and it looks like Santa will give him his Christmas gift early this year.

It’s being reported that Hot Tub Time Machine director Steve Pink is in talks to write and direct Bad Santa 2.

This is the first solid development we’ve heard since it was revealed that a sequel could start production towards the end of 2012. Pink would be penning the rewrites to the draft that Johnny Rosenthal and John Phillips had written in the past.

Details to the plot are currently unknown, but they expect to begin production in the fall for a Christmas 2013 release. So far Thornton is the only one attached to return, we have yet to hear if Lauren Graham and Brett Kelly will reprise their roles.

Aside from Pink’s work as a director for the Hot Tub Time Machine, he has also received screenplay credit on High Fidelity and Gross Pointe Blank. Audiences will also get a chance to see more of his work later this year as he served as director for upcoming episodes of New Girl, The Office, and Happy Endings.

What do you think about Pink directing Bad Santa 2?

[Source: Deadline]