Smile 2 director Parker Finn eyes ‘thoughtful’ and ‘emotionally grounded’ sequel
'Smile 2' director Parker Finn would consider making a sequel - so long as the film was "thoughtful" and "emotionally grounded".
‘Smile 2’ director Parker Finn is open to making a sequel.
The 37-year-old filmmaker - who helmed the 2024 horror movie and its 2022 predecessor - has revealed he hasn’t closed the door on the series yet, but has stressed any new flicks set in the franchise would remain “thoughtful” and “emotionally grounded”.
Speaking with Collider, Finn said: “I think that if there were more directions for ‘Smile’ to go in I'd want to make sure that it stays very thoughtful and sort of thematic and emotionally grounded with characters because I think that's what makes the ‘Smile’ movies work and I want to make sure that it continues to be fresh and unexpected, so we'll have to see.”
‘Smile 2’ follows pop mega-star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) as her life begins to unravel after a haunting smile figure takes the form of her former partner Paul (Ray Nicholson) and mercilessly torments her.
Looking at the movie, Finn heaped praise onto Scott for her performance as Skye Riley, and described the 31-year-old actress as “the perfect storm” for the role.
He said: “Well, I think that I always treat my actors, especially my leads, sort of as my partner in crime. It's really about getting onto the same page and really understanding the role and creating the space for them to perform.
“And I think that it starts on the page, of course, and then casting is such an important part of the filmmaking process and it's about finding the right person.
“I think that Naomi was such a perfect storm for the character of Skye Riley. She's so talented. She sings, she dances, and she was able to go to these really extreme emotional places and yeah, I loved working with her.”
Previously, Finn had stressed he would only revisit the ‘Smile’ franchise if he could find a way to “tell really intense and hopefully thoughtful character stories”.
He said: “Well, I will say this, I think there are a lot of interesting roads that any future ‘Smile’ could go down. For me, I love all the stuff that goes bump in the night, and all the really frightening things of the big concept of ‘Smile’ and the Smiler.
“But really, for me, ‘Smile’ is a vehicle to tell really intense and hopefully thoughtful character stories, and so I’d wanna make sure, regardless of if more than one person might have it, that we still find a way to really invest intimacy into the storytelling. That’s super important to me. But I think there are some really interesting tricks still up the sleeves of ‘Smile’.”
On a production budget of $28 million, ‘Smile 2’ - which also starred Kyler Gallner and Lukas Cage - pulled in $69 million at the U.S. box office, and ended its global theatrical run with a total taking of $138 million.
