David Bruckner Tapped to Direct Third Smile Film for Paramount

Horror director David Bruckner has signed on to direct Smile 3, the next chapter in Paramount's hit horror franchise, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Bruckner, who directed the 2022 Hellraiser remake for Hulu, will take over the follow-up to 2024's Smile 2. Nick Antosca is writing the screenplay.

Parker Finn, who created the series and wrote and directed the first two films, developed the framework for the third installment and pitched it to the studio. He will stay on as a producer, while Jonathan Fass will serve as executive producer.

Besides Hellraiser, Bruckner's earlier credits include The Night House and The Ritual. He has several other projects in the pipeline as well. Universal Pictures' The Caretaker, an adaptation of Marcus Kliewer's book of the same name starring Sydney Sweeney, is one of them. He is also attached to the horror film Mice for A24, and he is writing and developing a remake of The Blob.

Finn signed a first-look deal with Paramount Pictures in 2023. He is currently directing the studio's remake of Possession, which stars Callum Turner and Margaret Qualley and is scheduled for release on June 11, 2027.

After Smile 2 came out, Finn spoke with The Hollywood Reporter about where the franchise might head next. "There's a lot of really exciting places that Smile could go to from here," he said, adding that he liked the idea of future entries going "bigger and more off the rails and even crazier and more unhinged."

Still, Finn stressed that the series should keep its human core. "What's important about Smile is that there is a real human, character-driven, intimate nature to the storytelling," he said, adding that even if the world grows much larger, he would want the stories inside it to remain impactful on a human level.

The franchise has been a commercial success. The first Smile was the top-grossing original horror film of 2022, and the series as a whole has earned more than $350 million worldwide.