Christina Hendricks Joins Billy Bob Thornton in 'Bad Santa 2'

'Mean Girls' helmer Mark Waters is directing the movie.

Mad Men star Christina Hendricks will star as the love interest opposite Billy Bob Thornton in Bad Santa 2, the sequel to the 2003 dark comedy.

Mark Waters (Mean Girls) is directing the movie, which is being produced by Andrew Gunn and Geyer Kosinski.

Broad Green and Miramax are co-financing and co-producing the comedy that also has Kathy Bates in the cast and begins shooting Montreal next week.

Plot details for the new movie are being kept wrapped under the tree, but Hendricks will play an Ivy League-educated, upper class woman who runs a charity that is targeted by Thornton’s mall Santa and his foul-mouthed, tough-as-nails mother (Bates). And just as Lauren Graham does in the original, Hendricks has a thing for shady lowlifes in a Santa costume.

Johnny Rosenthal, Doug Ellin (Entourage) and Shauna Cross (If I Stay) wrote the script. Miramax's Zanne Devine and David Thwaites, Broad Green's Gabriel and Daniel Hammond, Waters, Ellin and Jessica Tuchinsky are exec producing.

Hendricks, repped by ICM Partners, is currently filming the indie Pottersville with Michael Shannon.