I applaud Paramount for putting the brakes on a sequel to It's a Wonderful Life earlier this year.

Imagine what a train wreck it would have been. The movie served as a sequel to itself — in other words, we knew how it ended.

My only fear now is some Hollywood hack director will want to make it hip and relevant to today's audience when the movie remains as hip and relevant as it ever will be.

Imagine George Bailey circa 2013, fighting for survival with a small savings and loan bank, having to work against the rising tide of healthcare costs, heavy regulation and Bank of America.

Having his uncle misplace $8,000 would be mild compared to the high cost of doing business these days and he would have probably already been out of business when the crash of 2007 came in like a tsunami.

That would be problem number one. Problem number two would be coming home to a modern 2013 family as Tommy is failing all subjects and going to Skittle parties after stealing pain medication from Ma Bailey's medicine cabinet.

Pete bailed on college and aimlessly wanders the country looking for relevance in hookers and acid.

All Janie does is demand money when she's not got her headphones on, one eye glued to her iPhone and the other to her iPad, hoping the dreamy boy will ask her to the dance and wondering how to go about getting birth control.

Zuzu, George and Mary's last hope for semblance of a normal family, has turned sullen, re-blogs morbid memes and gifs to her Tumblr and Instagram pages, while saying how much she hates her father on her Facebook page.

She writes poetry about wilted petals, a metaphor for her early childhood, and going to garden parties where other children gather to mark their angst with steak knives deep into their skin.

Then there's something about Mary, George realizes, after seeing her Samsung Galaxy unlocked one night, revealing sultry, if not downright pornographic texts between her and Sam Wainwright.

George Bailey, 2013 businessman with old school sensibilities, is awash in the tide of eroding values, insolent teenagers, especially at Christmas, where the greedy wish lists of the Bailey clan read like an MIT technology inventory.

Is it any wonder George is thinking of taking his own life on Christmas Eve?

In 2013 Hollywood, the twist is his guardian angel is actually a spawn from hell who shows him every reason he should take his life, from his brother Harry who went AWOL and defected to the Taliban, to Uncle Billy, who embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the family business. We won't even mention Violet Bick, who just sent word she is suing George for sexual harassment and a suit claiming he is the father of her non-existent child.

Yes, if you want to talk about train wrecks, a 2013 remake of this classic would definitely be the worst, especially when in the end Mr. Potter sends his henchmen out to take care of George in classic Scarface style so he can assume control of the savings and loan. Somewhere in this madness there would have to be a car chase and several steamy scenes with Mary and Sam having their affair.

Fortunately, as far as a sequel goes, I give Paramount big thanks for putting the clamps on that nonsense and I hope no progressive director ever thinks of giving this classic the 2013 treatment. Some things you can't improve upon — Lance Martin