‘Obsession’ producer Leonora Ann Darby says she was snubbed by…
Just days after the indie horror hit “Obsession” crossed $500 million worldwide at the box workplace, the movie’s producers are dealing with a lawsuit from a colleague who claims they had been reduce out of the income.
Leonora Ann Darby filed a lawsuit in a California state court docket on Monday, accusing Tea Shop Productions’ co-founders James Harris and Mark Lane for reneging on an earlier settlement, according to THR.
The preliminary settlement would have made her an equal producer at the company, and on the project, though she was in the end relegated to an govt producer function.
Leonora Ann Darby filed a lawsuit in a California state court docket on Monday, accusing Tea Shop Productions’ co-founders James Harris and Mark Lane for reneging on an earlier settlement, according to THR. Getty Images for The Surfer
Just days after the indie horror hit “Obsession” crossed $500 million worldwide at the box workplace, the movie’s producers are dealing with a lawsuit from a colleague who claims to have been reduce out of the income. ©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection
The lawsuit alleges that her work on the psychological thriller — at one point “rescuing” it, according to the lawsuit — ought to have certified her for a lead producer function, which incorporates revenue participation involvement.
Darby claims that, as soon as the movie turned a considerable box workplace hit — and now part of Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights — Harris and Lane reduce her out, which had major monetary implications, though the quantity she was reduce out of was not given in the lawsuit.
“Ms. Darby has brought serious and substantial claims, supported by a detailed factual record,“ said her lawyer Thomas K. Richards, a partner at Singh, Singh and Trauben, in a statement. “She is confident in her case and intends to pursue it fully.”
Darby began working at Tea Shop Productions in 2019, serving to to supply movies such as 2021’s “Bull” and “A Banquet,” 2024’s “The Surfer” and 2025’s “Tornado,” to call a few.
Darby’s management was also said to be essential in delivering the movie on time so it might premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the place it was bought to Focus Features for a whopping $16.2 million. WireImage
She engaged with Harris and Lane in 2024 to barter a new compensation settlement that would give her one-third of the internet income for movies that she served as a lead producer on.
When she got here on board “Obsession,” the artistic management of the movie had been taken away from writer-director Curry Barker and handed off to a new editor.
When that association was deemed to be hurting the movie, Darby stepped in and introduced Barker again into the fold in post-production.
She also organized for re-shoots to happen, which also enormously helped the movie and addressed many of the points that had been addressed in post-production.
James Grandison (from left), Nathan Klingher, Leonora Darby, Alexander Bertrand, Julian McMahon, Nicolas Cage, Lorcan Finnegan, Thomas Martin and Jim Kolmar attend the North American premiere of “The Surfer” during the 2025 SXSW Conference and Festival at ZACH Theatre on Monday, March 10, 2025, in Austin, Texas. Getty Images for The Surfer
Darby’s management was also said to be essential in delivering the movie on time so it might premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the place it was bought to Focus Features for a whopping $16.2 million.
“Darby‘s notes on the opening relational set up between the lead male and female characters, the character arcs in the first two acts and her strong recommendation (which was adopted) to fully commit to the film‘s supernatural elements, including making the One Wish Willow a real element that functioned as intended in the real world of the film (with the iconic ‘money scene’ thus confirming this), critically resulted in a new pathway for the film,” the lawsuit claims.
A scene from “Obsession” in 2025. ©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection
However, after the movie hit theaters again in May, and have become a crucial and business hit, Harris and Lane, “repeatedly breached and violated the 2024 agreement.”
Harris and Lane not only didn’t invite her to take part in selling the movie, or the premiere screening, and said “Obsession,” “would be the one film on which she received no continuing participation.”
From left, Michael Johnston, Megan Lawless and Cooper Tomlinson in “Obsession” in 2025. ©Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection
Harris paid Darby a $300,000 payment, with each events agreeing she would continue to take part in internet income after the movie’s release, though that would change.
Tea Shop proposed a new settlement that withdrew the previously-promised one-third of internet income, including future compensation could be thought-about, “where we [Harris and Lane] feel appropriate.”
The lawsuit alleges this was a part of a, “years-long sample through which they [Harris and Lane] promised Darby equal treatment and in the end memorialized that promise economically by way of her one-third (33.3 p.c) internet income share while retaining sensible management over the mechanisms by way of which she might exercise and profit from that equality.“
Darby is also in search of a full accounting of “Obsession” and other Tea Shop Productions initiatives to find out if other compensation could also be owed to her.
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