7) Bad Santa 2
One of the unexpected pleasures in comedy last decade was seeing Billy Bob Thornton play an alcoholic burglar and part-time Santa Claus, in a misanthropic black comedy part-scripted by the Coen brothers. Perhaps owing to the fact that its worldwide box office wasn’t spectacular, the film didn’t generate any sequel interest – until it became a home video sleeper hit, and Miramax decided 13 years down the line to commission a sequel.
The main trio from the original – Billy Bob, and Tony Cox and Brett Kelly as Willie Stokes’ sidekicks – are back for Bad Santa 2, with Christina Hendricks and Kathy Bates added to the cast list, and Mean Girls director Mark Waters replacing Terry Zwigoff in the director’s chair. This one’s literally just started shooting, so there are no previews yet, but that they managed to get the notoriously grumpy Billy Bob back at all suggests something was right with the script.