Curry Barker has responded to the now-viral post from Obsession art director Sally Choi, who revealed she was paid $6,741 while calling for change within the industry. Obsession fever shows no signs of slowing down – the horror movie has had an unprecedented run at the box office, with multiple cinema-goers watching it 10+ times, ramping up its global total to $287million at the time of writing. This becomes even more impressive when you find out it was made on a shoestring budget of just $750,000. That said, most of the earnings will go to the production companies and distributors rather than the creatives who made it. It’s something Sally Choi spoke about in an Instagram post on June 4th, saying she earned $300 a day as art director on the film and had to wear “many, many hats” due to the low-budget production, leading to health problems. View this post on Instagram A post shared by °•°sally•°•♡ (@kiwisupreez) She noted that the issue was bigger than Curry and Obsession, and later doubled down in a follow-up post, where she said she was speaking to a union. It’s sparked a huge debate, with some arguing Sally blacklisted herself, while others have commended her for speaking up. Addressing the viral Obsession pay debate The Hollywood Reporter took the opportunity to ask Curry about the matter, noting that while he’s not the person who wrote the checks, does he have any feelings about it. “I have nothing but respect for the art department, and the work they did was extraordinary. Everybody on this film worked so hard and they deserve to be recognised,” the filmmaker replied. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Obsession (@obsessionthemovie) “This movie was made for so little money that it’s typical that the only people who [directly] benefit from its financial success are the people who took on some sort of risk.” Curry appears to be referring to the way profits are typically distributed on indie films – investors, producers, or creatives with ownership stakes can benefit from a movie’s success, while crew members are paid a fixed rate regardless of how well the project performs. “But what I hope is that every person that worked really hard on this film will see opportunities to catapult their careers in ways that can be very financially fruitful for them – like what’s happening for me,” he added. Speaking of which, Curry also spoke about potential opportunities for the next Obsession through feature-length adaptations of his horror shorts. “The Chair could definitely be a horror film. I think eventually it would be cool to bring a feature version of the haunted chair story to life,” he said. “Milk and Serial [about a serial killer with a YouTube prank channel] is probably going to happen [as a film]. I wonder if there’s an opportunity to bring somebody else onto Milk and Serial and I’ll produce but not necessarily direct.” If that goes ahead, the filmmaker would have to pick someone who understands audiences in the same way he does – because by the sounds of things, Obsession could’ve looked very different if he hadn’t stood by his story. “When we were shopping this around, there were companies that told me they would give me $2 million if I just rewrote the script to make Bear a hero,” he explained. “I was like, ‘I’m not rewriting the script to make Bear a guy that does all the right things. It’s so much more interesting that he doesn’t do the right thing and instead tries to make [the relationship] work and he just keeps making bad decision after bad decision.’ “The movie would have been so boring if Bear was going on a journey to figure out the lore of the One Wish Willow. So I turned down more money to tell the story that I was more interested in telling.” For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page. Featured image credit: Instagram/@curry.barker/Focus Features Post navigation Next storyPrevious story
