Paul Dano has signed on for Paramount’s remake of “Possession,” joining stars Callum Turner and Margaret Qualley in director Parker Finn’s reimagining of Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 cult horror film. Finn, who broke through with “Smile” and its 2024 sequel, wrote and will direct the new version, marking his first project outside that franchise. Studio insiders describe Dano’s role as tightly guarded, with no character details released.
The original “Possession” follows a spy who returns to Cold War-era West Berlin to find his wife spiraling into disturbing behavior after she asks for a divorce, a descent that curdles into infidelity, violence and a monstrous secret. Turner appears likely to inherit Sam Neill’s role as the husband, while Qualley takes on the part that won Isabelle Adjani the Best Actress prize at Cannes in 1981 — a performance built around a harrowing subway breakdown scene still studied by horror fans decades later.
The project ignited a bidding war in 2024 among A24, Netflix, Sony, Warner Bros. and Paramount before Paramount secured the rights. Robert Pattinson, once rumored to star, instead moved into a producing role alongside Roy Lee and Andrew Childs of Vertigo Entertainment and Finn’s producing partner Jonathan Fass. Marc Bienstock is executive producing.
Adjani herself has weighed in on her successor. Speaking at Cannes this spring, she called Qualley “incredibly talented” and noted the two had met years earlier at a dinner party, where Qualley remarked on their resemblance. Adjani framed the remake as a product of Hollywood’s current appetite for reviving cult properties, adding simply, “Why not?”
Reaction among longtime fans has split sharply. Some question if any actor can match Adjani’s physical extremity in the role; others worry a modern studio treatment will sand down the political dread and surreal violence that made Żuławski’s film notorious after its Cannes premiere. Qualley’s recent turn in “The Substance,” which drew an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, has offered some reassurance that she can handle body horror without flinching. Production is expected to begin this summer, with Paramount yet to set a release date.
