Update: Variety has confirmed the news: David Bruckner will direct Smile 3 with Nick Antosca writing the script.
—Original article follows—
According to Daniel Richtman, Paramount Pictures has reportedly tapped David Bruckner (Hellraiser) to direct Smile 3. He would be taking over from Parker Finn, who created the franchise and directed the first two movies, as he’s busy working on his remake of Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession.
Smile 3
David Bruckner has a serious horror pedigree, with his work including The Signal, The Ritual, The Night House, and the Hellraiser remake. And he’s also worked on multiple installments of the V/H/S franchise. So he should prove to be a good fit for the Smile franchise.
At one point, Paramount had been considering releasing the first Smile movie on Paramount+, but positive test screenings convinced the studio to give it a theatrical release. That decision proved to be the right one as the film was a huge success, grossing over $217 million worldwide on a $17 million budget. It starred Sosie Bacon as a therapist who has increasingly disturbing visions after witnessing the suicide of a patient.
The sequel, Smile 2, followed Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), a pop star who finds the curse passed on to her just as she is about to embark on tour. It was another success, grossing $138 million worldwide on a $28 million budget.
Even before the release of Smile 2, Finn teased that there’s still plenty of story to tell. “We felt like we’d uncovered the mystery in the first one, but we’ve maybe only scooped a single glass of water out of the ocean,” he said. “There are some ideas that I think are very exciting. I think it’s really fun to imagine a lineage of Smile movies where each one becomes more off the rails than the previous one. What’s really interesting about Smile is that you can find yourself in different stories, different characters, different worlds.“
What We Thought of Smile 2
Our own Chris Bumbray found Smile 2 to be a bigger and better improvement over its predecessor. “Boasting a bigger budget, Parker Finn’s taken what could have been a run-of-the-mill sequel and elevated it to truly dazzling height,” he wrote. “I liked the first movie well enough, but I wasn’t prepared for how much fun the sequel was right off the bat.“
He continued, “I was shocked at how much I loved Smile 2. For me, it’s one of the more entertaining films I’ve seen this year, with the two-hour-plus running time racing by. It’s an all-out gore-soaked blast.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.
What do you think of David Bruckner directing Smile 3?
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