Nick Antosca is writing the screenplay, and Parker Finn stays on as a producer.
Paramount has hired director David Bruckner to helm Smile 3, the studio announced on Wednesday, and screenwriter Nick Antosca will write the script. Creator Parker Finn, who wrote and directed the first two films, is not spearheading the third.
Antosca made his name developing Apple's limited series Cape Fear, and he helped create Hulu's The Act. He also wrote Antlers, from 2021, and Verity, the most recent Colleen Hoover adaptation.
Finn pitched the framework for the third film and will stay on as a producer with Temple Hill. Executive producer Jonathan Fass is also attached.
Bruckner directed the 2022 Hulu reboot of Hellraiser, and he has also made The Ritual and The Night House. He is attached to direct The Caretaker, a Universal adaptation of Marcus Kliewer's book starring Sydney Sweeney. He is also writing and developing a remake of The Blob for Warner Bros., and is set to direct Mice for A24.
Plot details have not been revealed. Each Smile film has been a standalone sequel with its own story and new cast, so it is unclear who will appear in this one.
The first Smile was commissioned for streaming before it pivoted to a theatrical release. It grossed $105 million domestically and $217 million globally, and the franchise has grossed more than $350 million worldwide.
Finn told The Hollywood Reporter what he wants to hold onto as the series grows, after Smile 2 came out in 2024:
"But, for me, what's important about Smile is that there is a real human, character-driven, intimate nature to the storytelling."
Finn is under a first-look deal with Paramount and is at work directing a redo of Possession, the 1981 supernatural thriller, with Callum Turner and Margaret Qualley in the leads. It is set for June 11, 2027.
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