{"id":489098,"date":"2026-06-08T14:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T14:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/489098\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T14:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T14:32:12","slug":"obsession-producers-tea-shop-on-finding-curry-barker-and-sequels-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/489098\/","title":{"rendered":"Obsession Producers Tea Shop on Finding Curry Barker and Sequels Talks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIn a story likely to have been excitedly retold and forwarded many thousands of times among budding filmmakers over the last few weeks, before he made \u201cObsession<\/a>,\u201d Curry Barker was doing his thing on YouTube, where in 2023 his 22-minute horror short \u201cThe Chair\u201d was spotted by LA-based Brit producer James Harris<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tImpressed by what he saw, Harris showed \u201cThe Chair\u201d to his fellow Brits running Tea Shop Productions<\/a>, co-founder Mark Lane<\/a> (based in the U.K) and Leonara Darby, another expat in LA who first joined the company as an assistant but was soon elevated to producer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s such an incredible short in terms of its cinematic appeal,\u201d says Harris, noting that Barker was able to make something for a small amount of money that, unlike many other YouTube filmmakers, didn\u2019t \u201cfeel like it was shot on an iPhone in someone\u2019s house\u201d and had a distinct Hollywood aesthetic. \u201cAnd it just felt to us, that, okay, here is a person who, if you can translate whatever he did for a few $1,000 and give him more money, which isn\u2019t a lot of money for a film but is a lot of money for him, you can scale him up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThat scale-up has now become the stuff of almost Hollywood legend.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom a budget of $750,000, Barker made his debut horror feature \u201cObsession,\u201d one of the biggest phenomenons of 2026 that continues to smash records. After three weeks of successive box office hikes (the first non-festive wide release since \u201cE.T.\u201d to do so and beating \u201cStar Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu\u201d in the process), and a mere 7% drop in the fourth, the film now sits at an astonishing $224 million worldwide, making it the most successful release of all time for Focus Features, who bought the film for $15 million following major buzz in Toronto last year. Coupled with \u201cBackrooms,\u201d \u201cObsession\u201d has helped turn the industry on its head in less than a month. <\/p>\n

\n\tDespite having lived in LA for over a decade, Lane offers a distinctly British reaction to his company being behind one in one of the surprise breakaway hits of the year. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI would love to pretend there was some sort of amazing secret to it,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd look, we all saw potential in the project. But I\u2019d be lying if anyone could foreshadow the phenomena of people seeing the movie six times, or people making memes about it, or people reading into stuff in the movie that honestly I don\u2019t think anybody should be reading into.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHarris went to see \u201cBackrooms\u201d last week and \u201creally enjoyed it,\u201d but says the most eye-opening thing was that the cinema \u201cwas like an event full of sub-30-year-olds who were almost rediscovering what it\u2019s like to go to the cinema,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was wild.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor Tea Shop \u2014\u00a0first launched in 2010 \u2014\u00a0\u201cObsession\u201d has become by far its biggest title to date from the more than 40 it has produced. The film has long surpassed 2017\u2019s \u201c47 Meters Down,\u201d its Mandy Moore-led shark thriller from director Johannes Roberts, which marked a turning point for the company after it was saved from a straight-to-DVD release at the 11th hour to make a surprise $62.5 million at the box office, spawning a franchise. There\u2019s another franchise in Scott Mann\u2019s vertigo-inducing survival thriller \u201cFall,\u201d which became a pandemic hit for Lionsgate and now has two sequels in the works (the first gearing up for release in September and the second now in post). <\/p>\n

\n\tBut \u201cObsession\u201d isn\u2019t going to dramatically shift how Tea Shop works, outside the studio system with a focus on smart genre storytelling from bold up-and-coming filmmakers, many of whom they\u2019ve helped elevate in the process. Harris is keen to highlight directors such as Ruth Paxton, who made her debut with the horror \u201cA Banquet,\u201d Emmanuelle Picket, who shot a pre-\u201cAnora\u201d Mikey Madison in \u201cAll Souls,\u201d and Jordan Downey, who did his second film, the horror\/thriller \u201cThe Cycle,\u201d with them. Among its upcoming features is \u201cThe Grow Up,\u201d the debut feature from Plum Stupple-Harris, who they first crossed paths with when he was working as a director\u2019s assistant on last year\u2019s rom-com \u201cJingle Bell Heist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cObsession\u201d does, however, help grease the wheels going forward. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re pretty happy with our operation and the projects we do, and we\u2019re been pretty true to the type of material we like,\u201d says Harris. \u201cBut ultimately, it\u2019s just going to open more doors and make certain conversations easier. Success breeds success, so if agents start sending you projects with bigger talent attached, those projects become easier to make. Also, scripts are subjective, so having a successful movie means that people are now like; \u2018maybe I should say yes to this.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMuch of widespread chatter over \u201cObsession\u201d and \u201cBackrooms\u201d is over their impact on the industry, and Lane says that some of the best response they\u2019ve received have been how it\u2019s \u201cgood for everyone, because it means it could happen to us as well.\u201d Because, for all the educated insight of a team of experienced producers who believe they know what audiences want to watch, there is a \u201chuge element of luck,\u201d he acknowledges. \u201cWhich is why everyone is looking at us, going that could be me \u2014\u00a0 that could be the next small film that we get off the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Harris notes, thanks to these two films, it\u2019s no doubt a \u201cwonderful time to be a YouTube creator,\u201d and says he\u2019s sure \u201cevery studio has just suddenly hired a 23-year-old to be an Instagram researcher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut he does offers an air of caution to those who might get caught up in a potential gold rush and the allure of studio budgets. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m sure a lot of YouTube filmmakers are going to now skip the \u2018Obsession\u2019 step and move on to $20 million studio movies,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I think there\u2019s a lot of merit in doing that step first and making something that says something about you, versus doing a franchise film that maybe you don\u2019t nail, and and then you go back to the beginning again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHaving nailed it, and then some, with \u201cObsession,\u201d Barker has already shot his second feature, the supernatural horror \u201cAnything But Ghosts\u201d \u2014\u00a0starring Aaron Paul and Bryce Dallas Howard \u2014 for Blumhouse and is now plotting his third, which thanks to the last few weeks, Harris say \u201cI\u2019m sure he\u2019ll get a trillion dollars for.\u201d And then there\u2019s the potential of reteaming with Tea Shop on a sequel to the smash hit that made his name. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m sure there\u2019ll be an \u2018Obsession 2\u2019 conversation sooner rather than later,\u201d says Harris. \u201cBut let\u2019s see when Curry is even available to make it, because I\u2019m sure he\u2019s having more meetings that he knows what to do with at this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a story likely to have been excitedly retold and forwarded many thousands of times among budding filmmakers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,210153,210154,270,2379,210155],"class_list":["post-489098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-james-harris","tag-mark-lane","tag-movies","tag-obsession","tag-tea-shop-productions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}