Paramount Hands ‘Smile 3’ to David Bruckner as Parker Finn Chases a Cult Horror Classic

Paramount has found a new face to carry its most profitable horror franchise. David Bruckner will direct “Smile 3,” the studio confirmed Wednesday, with Nick Antosca writing the screenplay. The move ends months of speculation about whether franchise creator Parker Finn would return for a third round, and it answers the bigger question hanging over the series: what happens when the architect steps away but the machine keeps running.

Finn is not leaving the “Smile” universe entirely. He pitched the framework for the third installment and will remain attached as a producer alongside Temple Hill. Jonathan Fass is set to executive produce. But the day-to-day creative control now sits with Bruckner, a genre veteran whose résumé includes the 2022 “Hellraiser” reboot, 2017’s “The Ritual,” and 2020’s “The Night House”.

The handoff is less risky than it might look on paper. Each “Smile” film has operated as a standalone sequel—new protagonist, new setting, same grinning entity. The first film followed Sosie Bacon as a therapist haunted by hallucinations after a patient’s death. The second shifted to Naomi Scott as a pop star whose tour becomes a waking nightmare. No returning cast has been announced for the third, and plot details remain under wraps. That structural flexibility gives Bruckner room to reset without severing continuity.

Bruckner is also in demand elsewhere. He is writing and developing a reboot of “The Blob” for Warner Bros., adapting “The Caretaker” for Universal with Sydney Sweeney attached to star, and is set to direct “Mice” for A24. His signing was first floated by scooper Daniel Richtman before Variety confirmed the deal; Bruckner is repped by WME and Grandview. Antosca’s credits lean more toward limited series and true-crime horror: he created Apple’s “Cape Fear” series, co-created Hulu’s “The Act,” and wrote 2021’s “Antlers” and the Colleen Hoover adaptation “Verity”.

The franchise math explains why Paramount moved quickly. The original “Smile,” initially commissioned for streaming before a theatrical pivot, grossed $105 million domestically and $217 million worldwide against a $17 million budget. “Smile 2” pulled in $69 million domestic and $139 million global on a $28 million budget—a smaller haul but still a commercial win. The two films have combined for more than $350 million worldwide. For a studio building a horror slate around modest budgets and high-concept hooks, that track record buys patience for a director transition.

Finn’s attention now turns to a very different kind of horror. He is writing, directing, and producing a remake of Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 psychological nightmare “Possession” for Paramount, released through his first-look deal with the studio. The project is already filming in New Jersey and has assembled a cast that includes Margaret Qualley, Callum Turner, Diego Calva, Paul Dano, Madeline Brewer, Emory Cohen, and Nicholas Alexander Chavez. Paramount has dated it for June 11, 2027.

The original “Possession” starred Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill as a married couple in Cold War-era West Berlin whose relationship disintegrates into something monstrous. It is a cult title with a reputation for intensity that makes a remake a genuine risk—and a genuine prestige play for Finn, who signed his first-look deal with Paramount after the first “Smile” became a theatrical success. Moving from a franchise he built to a property with a fixed arthouse legacy is a different kind of pressure. The “Smile” handoff, by contrast, keeps the series in familiar commercial waters while Finn tests his range.

For Bruckner, “Smile 3” adds another studio property to a slate already crowded with reboots and adaptations. For Paramount, the calculation is straightforward: protect a $350 million franchise with a proven horror director while letting its creator chase a passion project under the same roof. The third film has no release date yet, but the pieces are now in place. Whether audiences accept a “Smile” movie without Finn’s fingerprints is the only question the box office can answer.

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For VVIPTimes, this is the story of a franchise learning to survive its creator—and a creator betting that he can survive without the smile.