Obsession EP Sues Over Promised Profit Participation From Horror Hit
Leonora Ann Darby claims she has been rewarded for saving Obsession by her fellow executive producers ripping her off promised big bucks from the one of the highest-grossing horror movie of all time.
“This action arises from a seven-year pattern of unequal treatment and broken compensation promises by two older male film producers to a younger female producer whose labor was material to the growth of their company and who rescued their biggest film, the global hit Obsession,” reads a breach of contract complaint filed August 28 in Los Angeles Superior Court.
No One Wish Willow zinger here, but long 135-page filing short, Darby says Tea Shop Productions‘ James Harris and Mark Lane were playing her for a while, and the Inde Navarrette– and Michael Johnston-starring Obsession simply proved the final straw.
Specifically, Darby says the duo brought her onboard at their “failing” and “fledgling company” in 2019 with offers of being an “equal producer, including with respect to compensation, company direction, project decisions, financial transparency, and access to business opportunities.” Among those aforementioned opportunities were Lane and Harris’ 2024 promise, allegedly reneged on at least once, that Darby would “receive one-third (33.33%) of the net profits due to Tea Shop on films she lead-produced, together with direct participation in the applicable collection account management agreements.”
The filing asserts: “Darby kept her side of that bargain. From 2019 through 2026, she progressed from development and production executive to one of Tea Shop’s three producers. She originated and developed projects, attached filmmakers, assembled financing, produced films from preproduction through delivery, supervised post-production, resolved legal and quality-control problems, built systems, managed vendors and staff, and repeatedly stepped into projects when Harris or Lane needed someone else to carry the work.”
Stating that she had to swoop in and get the Curry Barker-penned and -directed Obsession back on track both creatively and in terms of post-production, Darby says she was scammed out of her cut of the nearly $510 million the horror film subsequently scored at the worldwide box office after its May release.
“These Defendants failed to honor their promises and instead treated Darby as their subordinate, including in a highly demeaning and gendered manner, and continually refused to properly compensate her, culminating in ruthlessly cutting Darby out of the overall net profits for the motion picture Obsession (other than a single initial payment), Tea Shop’s biggest hit and one of the most successful independent films of all time,” the document from Beverly Hills firm Singh, Singh & Trauben says of the situation centered around the film, which was budgeted at less than $800,000. (Do the profit-participation math!)
Seeking unspecified damages and wages from Tea Shop, the 10-claim filing seeking a jury trial also wants an “equitable accounting and inquiry concerning Obsession, A Banquet, Banquet, Bull, The Wasp, The Cut, Into the Deep, Tornado, The Surfer, and any other project shown by the records to be subject to the pleaded agreements, followed by judgment for the balance found due.”
Darby does grant she received an extra $300,000 payment for Obsession when all was said and done. However, as the email and other correspondence in the document-heavy complaint points out, she seemed to get the short end of even that stick, as well as being shunned publicly and in the media by Lane and Harris.
Taking credit for getting a turfed Barker back in the driver’s seat and Obsession in shape for it to score a $16.2 million sale to Focus Features at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, Darby is suing Tea Shop and its various business entities, as well as Harris and Lane individually. Focus, which released Obsession wide on May 15 to big rewards, is not named as a defendant, nor is fellow executive producer Jason Blum.
Deadline reached out to Tea Shop about the suit but did not receive a response.
