‘Obsession’ producer Leonora Ann Darby says she was snubbed by production company after film took off

Just days after the indie horror hit “Obsession” crossed $500 million worldwide at the box office, the film’s producers are facing a lawsuit from a colleague who claims they were cut out of the profits.

Leonora Ann Darby filed a lawsuit in a California state court on Monday, accusing Tea Shop Productions’ co-founders James Harris and Mark Lane for reneging on an earlier agreement, according to THR.

The initial agreement would have made her an equal producer at the company, and on the project, though she was ultimately relegated to an executive producer role.

The lawsuit alleges that her work on the psychological thriller — at one point “rescuing” it, according to the lawsuit — should have qualified her for a lead producer role, which includes profit participation involvement.

Darby claims that, once the film became a substantial box office hit — and now a part of Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights — Harris and Lane cut her out, which had major financial implications, though the amount she was cut 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 started working at Tea Shop Productions in 2019, helping to produce films such as 2021’s “Bull” and “A Banquet,” 2024’s “The Surfer” and 2025’s “Tornado,” to name a few.

She engaged with Harris and Lane in 2024 to negotiate a new compensation agreement that would give her one-third of the net profits for films that she served as a lead producer on.

When she came on board “Obsession,” the creative control of the film had been taken away from writer-director Curry Barker and handed off to a new editor.

When that arrangement was deemed to be hurting the film, Darby stepped in and brought Barker back into the fold in post-production.

She also arranged for re-shoots to take place, which also greatly helped the film and addressed many of the issues that were addressed in post-production.

Darby’s leadership was also said to be crucial in delivering the film on time so it could premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it was sold 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.

However, after the film hit theaters back in May, and became a critical and commercial hit, Harris and Lane, “repeatedly breached and violated the 2024 agreement.”

Harris and Lane not only didn’t invite her to participate in promoting the film, or the premiere screening, and said “Obsession,” “would be the one film on which she received no continuing participation.”

Harris paid Darby a $300,000 fee, with both parties agreeing she would continue to participate in net profits after the film’s release, though that would change.

Tea Shop proposed a new agreement that withdrew the previously-promised one-third of net profits, adding future compensation would be considered, “where we [Harris and Lane] feel appropriate.”

The lawsuit alleges this was part of 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.“

Darby is also seeking a full accounting of “Obsession” and other Tea Shop Productions projects to determine if other compensation may be owed to her.

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