SIXTY-SEVEN years after George Bailey stood on that ledge in the swirling snow, ready to jump into the icy waters below, we finally know how he feels.

Many fans of Frank Capra's peerless Christmas classic, It's A Wonderful Life, are in despair at the news that a sequel, of all things, is in the works.

"Please stop ruining my childhood, Hollywood," reads one comment on the US film and TV website Variety. "Get original or get lost."

"For the love of God," pleads another, "please stop this train-wreck before it starts."

A third comment gets it just right. "Next comes Casablanca, with Miley Cyrus." For the love of God, no.

The sequel to the 1946 Jimmy Stewart film will be called "It's A Wonderful Life: The Rest of the Story" and will feature Karolyn Grimes, who played the Baileys' daughter, Zuzu, in the original.

Grimes will play an angel, counselling her nephew, also named George Bailey, about how much better off the world would have been had he never been born.

In fairness it has to be acknowledged that a) Capra's film, a Christmas staple in millions of homes, has gone out of copyright in the USA, and b) that one of the sequel's co-producers has previously financed such decent films as Rain Man, The Mission and The Killing Fields.

But really, that's about all you can say in favour of the new film. It merely smacks of cynical opportunism and reminds you of Hollywood's lazy predilection for sequels and re-makes.

Worse - if they can make a sequel to a film as widely loved as It's A Wonderful Life, what's to stop them from re-making Citizen Kane or Gone With the Wind? Or even Casablanca, with Miley Cyrus in Ingrid Bergman's role?

Not that Bob Farnsworth, who co-wrote the new screenplay, cares much for such sentimental concerns.

"Look, no one can make another It's a Wonderful Life," he reasons. "But our story is solid ... There is no doubt about it, there will be a ruckus. But I have this motto: All it takes to be a leader is to have a cause you believe in. "

"And the stronger you believe in the cause, the more adversaries you will have. And we strongly believe in this."

For that pointless bluster alone, you can't help thinking how much better off the world would be if this sequel were never made.