Elf has already become a holiday staple in my house and in a lot of others. It’s the kind of Christmas movie so pitch perfect, it becomes an instant classic. That’s a rare thing in this day of sequels and stale ideas, so of course Elf will be sucked dry until it too becomes a stale idea.

According to Variety, Elf star Will Ferrell is currently trying to talk New Line into backing up the Brinks truck to secure him as the star of Elf 2: The Wrath of Leon. The good news there is that New Line is committed to getting Will on board before they even consider a second film; the bad news is that they’re considering a second film when the first one is perfect as is.

The original film’s director Jon Favreau has first crack at directing the script when they have it, but there’s no commitment from him at this point to do it. Favreau would be a fool to bother with it, after Elf his status in Hollywood has really reason, and he’d be smart to use that cache to move on to different and more interesting projects rather than just pigeonholing himself as that guy who directs movies about guys wearing pointy shoes and jumping on beds with children. Though perhaps that might be the way to go if he’s angling to direct the inevitable Michael Jackson movie.

Scott Armstrong, who wrote the brilliantly funny comedy Old School and did unaccredited work on the script for the first Elf movie is tapped for script writing duties, and if Favreau wants no part of Elf 2, word is that a New Line executive toady named Kent Alderman might direct.