An executive producer on Obsession who allegedly “rescued“ the box office smash hit from a bad edit is suing two fellow producers for cutting her out of her share of the profits.
In a lawsuit filed in California state court on Monday, producer Leonora Ann Darby accuses Tea Shop Productions‘ co-founders and her colleagues James Harris and Mark Lane of reneging on an agreement to treat her as an equal producer at the company and not acknowledging her key role on Obsession, with financial ramifications.
Though she was formally credited as an executive producer on Obsession, the lawsuit argues Darby acted as a lead producer within the functional, internal definition used by Tea Shop Productions. Conveniently, the lawsuit alleges, once Obsession became a major hit — recently crossing $500 million worldwide on a reported $750,000 budget — she was boxed out of net profit participation previously promised for projects she lead-produced, despite her significant work on the film.
“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.”
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to representatives for Tea Shop Productions and Barker for comment.
Darby joined Tea Shop Productions in 2019 as a development and production executive and rose through the ranks to become one of the company‘s three producers with Harris and Lane. She produced the thrillers The Surfer (2024) and Tornado (2025) and the horror film A Banquet (2021), among other titles. In 2024, she engaged in compensation negotiations to cement that rise, with the parties agreeing to entitle her to one third of the net profits for films that she lead-produced and participation in collection account management agreements (deals between people who participate in a film‘s financial waterfall).
Darby got involved in Obsession at a moment when the edit of the film had been taken away from director Curry Barker and handed to a new editor, an arrangement that was hurting the film, according to the complaint. Darby called for the edit to be restored to Barker (which happened) and also for some reshoots to take place to address issues in the film (which also happened).
Meanwhile, creatively, “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 suit alleges.
She later took a leadership role in ensuring the film was finalized so it could be delivered on time to the Toronto International Film Festival, where it sold to Focus Features for $16.2 million, per the complaint.
But, once Obsession was became a major hit, Harris and Lane allegedly “repeatedly breached and violated the 2024 agreement“ they had with Darby. The lawsuit claims the pair boxed her out from public recognition for her work on the film (including by not inviting her to participate in this Hollywood Reporter piece), didn‘t invite her to the film‘s premiere and expressed that Obsession “would be the one film on which she received no continuing participation.“
In the spring, Darby addressed the issue of proceeds from the film‘s sale with Harris, noting that she could see earnings in the collection account management agreement information she had access to. Eventually, the lawsuit states, Harris offered Darby a $300,000 initial payment, which the suit maintains was paid with both parties agreeing that she would continue to participate in net profits after.
But not long after, her access to collection account management agreement information was allegedly withdrawn. In June, the company proposed a new consulting arrangement with her and, after Darby sought to ensure the agreement did not negate her claim to her one-third of net profits, Lane told her that future compensation on Obsession would be considered “where we [Harris and Lane] feel appropriate.” Tea Shop Productions later withdrew that consulting proposal in favor of a proposed first-look agreement that explicitly stated Darby would not participate in Obsession profits.
In the complaint‘s telling, Darby‘s treatment on Obsession was the culmination of a larger trend of broken promises and diminishment of her work at Tea Shop Productions. It was a “years-long pattern in which they [Harris and Lane] promised Darby equal treatment and ultimately memorialized that promise economically through her one-third (33.3 percent) net profits share while retaining practical control over the mechanisms through which she could exercise and benefit from that equality.“
Among other requests, Darby is seeking a full accounting of several projects including Obsession and any unpaid profit participation and bonuses due to her.
Obsession‘s wild ride at the box office entranced Hollywood, as did the story of its 26-year-old writer-director (Barker), who rose from YouTube filmmaker to box-office hitmaker with a low-budget original movie. It was a classic scrappy indie production process, with creatives wearing multiple hats. Barker has been tapped to write and direct an A24 reboot of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and is set to write and direct another original story with Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster.
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