Long heralded as one of horror cinema’s freakiest and most emotionally unhinged classics—and arguably one of its most underseen, thanks to years of limited availability in a proper home-video edition—Polish filmmaker Andrzej Żuławski’s “Possession” is now moving forward as a Parker Finn remake with a new cast.
Margaret Qualley and Callum Turner will star in Finn’s remake of the 1981 cult psychological horror film (as revealed in a very low-key manner by Vanity Fair, which nonchalantly revealed the news through a new photo; see below). Finn, who broke out with “Smile” and followed it with “Smile 2,” is writing, directing, and producing the new version for Paramount Pictures. Robert Pattinson, who was initially attached to star and produce when the remake first surfaced in 2024, is now producing through Icki Eneo Arlo, alongside Roy Lee of Vertigo Entertainment.
The original “Possession” starred Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill as a disintegrating married couple in West Berlin, where a request for divorce opens into infidelity, obsession, psychosis, political dread, and something far stranger. Adjani won Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for a performance that has only grown in reputation over the decades, a full-body collapse that still feels almost impossible to replicate without looking ridiculous. That is part of the problem—and part of the fascination.
READ MORE: ‘Possession’ and The Essential Performances Of Isabelle Adjani
Finn has already said he knows the remake is walking into hostile territory. Last year, while promoting “Smile 2,” he described his approach as a film with “teeth and ferocity,” while emphasizing that he wanted it to honor Żuławski’s original without simply embalming it. That is probably the only workable path. “Possession” is not just a plot; it is a divorce movie, a monster movie, a Cold War panic attack, and a private exorcism, often all in the same scene.
Qualley is also a smart, telling choice for material this volatile. After “The Substance,” she has already shown a willingness to push into body-horror extremity without sanding down the ugliness or absurdity. She has also spent the last several years moving between genres, auteur work, and off-kilter comic turns, from “Poor Things” to “Drive-Away Dolls” and “Honey Don’t!” Turner, coming off “Masters Of The Air” and a run of high-profile projects, gives the remake a more classical screen presence to destabilize.
The question is: what does a modern “Possession” even look like? Żuławski’s film was banned, cut, misunderstood, rediscovered, and eventually canonized as a sacred text for viewers who like their relationship dramas howling on a subway platform. Finn has earned room to try after “Smile” and “Smile 2,” but “Possession” is a different beast: a film with nerves exposed and no interest in behaving. With Qualley and Turner now attached, the remake has moved from long-rumored provocation to an actual Paramount Pictures priority, though no release date has been set.
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
- Rodrigo Perez
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