Paramount has dated its remake of the 1981 cult horror classic Possession for June 11, 2027, setting up a head-to-head theatrical battle with Universal’s live-action How to Train Your Dragon 2 the same weekend.
Smile director Parker Finn is writing and directing the new version, which stars Callum Turner and Margaret Qualley in the roles originated by Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani in the original film.
The story follows a spy whose wife begins exhibiting disturbing behavior after asking him for a divorce, a premise that spirals into supernatural territory in Andrzej Żuławski’s original, a Cold War-set psychological horror film that earned Adjani the Best Actress prize at Cannes and became a cult favourite despite modest box office success at the time.
The remake rounds out its cast with Diego Calva, Madeline Brewer, Emory Cohen, Nicholas Alexander Chavez and Paul Dano.
Finn produces alongside Jonathan Fass, Roy Lee, Andrew Childs and Robert Pattinson, and has described the original as one of his all-time favourite films, saying he’s aiming for a version that carries “all the teeth and ferocity” of Żuławski’s film while still standing as its own “spiritual successor.”
Finn broke out with Smile in 2022, a sleeper hit for Paramount that grossed $217 million worldwide on a $17 million budget, and followed it with a 2024 sequel.
