David Bruckner is preparing to make horror fans smile, as the director has signed on to direct Smile 3.
The Hellraiser reboot director will helm the follow-up to 2024’s Smile 2 for Paramount. Nick Antosca will pen the script.
Parker Finn, creator, writer and director of the first two Smile films, developed and pitched the framework of the third entry. He will remain involved as a producer for Smile 3, and Jonathan Fass will executive produce.
Bruckner directed Hulu’s Hellraiser remake in 2022, and also previously helmed The Night House and The Ritual. Outside of Smile 3, he’s also attached to direct Universal Pictures’ The Caretaker, which is an adaptation of Marcus Kliewer’s book of the same name, starring Sydney Sweeney, and horror film Mice for A24. Bruckner is also writing and developing a remake of The Blob.
Finn signed a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures in 2023. He is also directing the studio’s Possession remake starring Callum Turner and Margaret Qualley that will release on June 11, 2027.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter after the release of Smile 2, Finn shared his hopes for the future of the film franchise.
“There’s a lot of really exciting places that Smile could go to from here. I love this idea that potential future iterations of Smile could go bigger and more off the rails and even crazier and more unhinged,” he said. “But, for me, what’s important about Smile is that there is a real human, character-driven, intimate nature to the storytelling. So even if the world gets much larger, I’d want to make sure that the stories we’re telling inside of it are still quite impactful on a human level.”
Smile emerged as the top-grossing original horror film of 2022, while the franchise as a whole has grossed more than $350 million worldwide.