Smile 3 Is Officially Happening — David Bruckner Takes the Grin From Parker Finn

Smile 3 is officially moving forward at Paramount, with David Bruckner directing and Parker Finn producing.

You’re standing in a bathroom at 3 a.m., rinsing the day off your face. You look up. The face in the mirror is yours — but it’s still smiling a half-second after you’ve stopped.

That’s the curse that turned a $17 million gamble into one of horror’s biggest modern franchises. And now, fiends, it’s changing hands.

Dim the lights, check the mirror one last time, and let’s get into it — because the grin has a new keeper.

The News

Smile 3 is officially a go at Paramount Pictures. David Bruckner, the filmmaker behind The Ritual, The Night House and 2022’s Hellraiser, has been set to direct the third entry, taking the director’s chair from franchise creator Parker Finn. Nick Antosca, the creator of Channel Zero, will write the screenplay, working from the story framework Finn himself pitched for this chapter.

Finn isn’t walking away from his monster. He stays on as a producer alongside Temple Hill, with Jonathan Fass serving as executive producer. He’s simply booked: Finn is directing Paramount’s remake of Possession, Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 cult nightmare, starring Callum Turner and Margaret Qualley and due in theaters June 11, 2027.

Beyond the new creative team, Paramount is keeping its lips sealed — which, given this franchise, feels appropriate. No plot details. No casting. No release date. Just a grin, widening.

Quick Specs

Director: David Bruckner
Writer: Nick Antosca, from a story framework by Parker Finn
Producers: Parker Finn, Temple Hill
Executive producer: Jonathan Fass
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Cast: Not yet announced
Release date: TBA

Why Bruckner Fits the Curse

If you have to hand your curse to somebody, hand it to a man who has already survived a few of his own.

Bruckner’s name has been on the genre’s door for years — our David Bruckner page traces the whole road, from his V/H/S segments through The Ritual’s folk-horror dread to the puzzle-box cruelty of Hellraiser (2022). The Night House showed he can build an entire film out of one grieving mind coming apart, which is more or less the Smile entity’s whole business model.

He’s also, frankly, booked solid: Bruckner is developing a reboot of The Blob for Warner Bros., The Caretaker with Sydney Sweeney for Universal, and Mice for A24. Smile 3 just joined a very crowded dance card.

Antosca is no tourist either. Beyond Channel Zero and Brand New Cherry Flavor, he co-created The Act, wrote Antlers, and created the Cape Fear series — a résumé built on slow dread and people smiling while terrible things happen to them. On paper, this pairing is less a handoff than a handover of loaded weapons.

The Curse So Far

A quick refresher, horror lovers, because this franchise’s origin story is half the fun.

Smile began as Laura Hasn’t Slept, Finn’s short film about a woman tormented by a grinning presence. Expanded into a feature with Sosie Bacon as therapist Rose Cotter, the first Smile was originally bound for streaming — until test screenings scared Paramount into putting it in theaters instead. Good call: it grossed $217 million worldwide on a $17 million budget. Our own Smile (2022) page has kept the original’s record in the crypt ever since.

Smile 2 (2024) passed the curse to Naomi Scott’s pop star Skye Riley and grossed roughly $140 million worldwide on a $28 million budget. Together, the two films have taken in more than $350 million worldwide. Each chapter has stood alone with a fresh victim — so expect a new face, and a new reason to dread it, this time around.

Finn has said what matters to him is that, with the entity as the throughline, “the storytelling remains very intimate and personal.” Whether Bruckner keeps it intimate or blows the curse wide open is the billion-dollar — well, $350 million — question.

What We Don’t Know Yet

Full disclosure, up front, because that’s how we do things here: Smile 3 exists today as an announcement and a creative team, nothing more. There is no footage, no cast, no date, and no plot to judge — anybody rating this film right now is rating a press release.

What we can judge is the match. A franchise built on intimate psychological unraveling, handed to a director who specializes in exactly that, with its creator still producing and his own story framework as the spine. That is not a studio milking a title. That’s a plan.

Trivia & Facts

Smile started life as the short film Laura Hasn’t Slept, written and directed by Parker Finn.
The first Smile was planned as a streaming release before strong test screenings moved it to theaters.
Smile (2022) grossed $217 million worldwide against a reported $17 million budget.
David Bruckner came up through the V/H/S anthology series before directing The Ritual.
Nick Antosca created the horror anthology series Channel Zero.
Parker Finn’s Possession remake, starring Callum Turner and Margaret Qualley, is scheduled for June 11, 2027.

Harper’s Extras

Start with The Night House — Bruckner’s grief-haunted house of mirrors, and the closest cousin to what Smile 3 could become.
Then revisit Hellraiser (2022), his swing at one of horror’s most sacred puzzle boxes.
And brush up on the curse itself with our Smile (2022) page before the new victim gets picked.

FAQ

Who is directing Smile 3?

David Bruckner, director of The Ritual, The Night House and Hellraiser (2022). Nick Antosca is writing the screenplay.

Is Parker Finn still involved with Smile 3?

Yes. Finn, who wrote and directed the first two films, stays on as a producer with Temple Hill and pitched the story framework for this chapter. He stepped back from directing because he is making Paramount’s Possession remake.

When does Smile 3 come out?

No release date has been announced yet. Casting and plot details are also still under wraps.

Will Smile 3 follow the same characters?

The first two films each followed a new protagonist, and no casting has been announced for the third — expect a fresh victim for the entity.

So tell us, fiends: who do you want to see wearing that grin next? Until the next nightmare — Harper out. Lights out.