Billy Bob Thornton Says 'Bad Santa 2' Will Shoot This Fall For Christmas 2013 Release; 'And Then We Drove' Will Lens This Summer

It has been a while since we heard anything about the long developing "Bad Santa 2," the sequel to the hit R-rated comedy that has yet to be topped for holiday raunch. Nearly a year ago it was confirmed that Billy Bob Thornton would be returning to reprise the role of Willie, while over the summer it was revealed that Dimension Films had hired two writers -- Johnny Rosenthal and John Phillips -- to each write separate scripts with the winning screenplay getting the thumbs up to go into production. Well, things have been quiet for a while but it looks like "Bad Santa 2" may finally be going in front of cameras.

Thornton is currently at the Berlin Film Festival where he has premiered his latest directorial outing, "Jayne Mansfield's Car," and our correspondent Jessica Kiang got a chance to sit down with him and ask about the sequel. "...the writer is still working on the script, he's doing his rewrite right now. We saw the first draft and we just had a few little things we wanted to take away or add and he's doing that. The plan is to shoot that in the fall," he told us, adding that a release for Christmas in 2013 is in the works.

No word yet on who will direct, or even whose script eventually won out, but it seems that "Bad Santa 2" is becoming a reality. Before that, Thornton will shoot his next directorial effort "And Then We Drove." The recently announced project is a road trip picture, and while plot details have been kept under wraps, Thorton did his best to fill us in on the vibe of the film. "This is predominately me and one other actor that are the main characters and there are a couple of other characters that are in maybe a third of the movie. Everybody else is going to be kind of in and out. It's sort of a trip across the United States. We're working on that, we won't be done with it for a while but we plan to shoot it this summer," Thornton told us.

So plenty on the actor's plate to keep him busy in 2012. Stay tuned for more from our interview with Thornton.