‘Obsession’ director Curry Barker reveals the $2 million rewrite he rejected
Obsession has undeniably become the horror genre’s flavour of the times, but director Curry Barker has now revealed he was offered $2 million for a rewrite he ultimately rejected.
The young director has suddenly become the envy of the film world after the storming success of Obsession, which has raked in $287.2 million at the global box office and become a huge horror hit.
The premise of the film follows the character of Bear, an employee of a music store who buys a supernatural toy in order to dupe his friend Nikki into falling in love with him, but disastrous consequences ensue.
However, in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Barker has now opened up about a plotline that could have made it into the movie, as he was offered to rewrite the script for $2 million, which he ended up declining.
On the subject of how the film deals with the issue of consent, the director said: “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 continued: “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’.”
Ultimately saying that Obsession would have been “so boring” if Bear had simply followed the hero’s path, Barker added: “So I turned down more money to tell the story that I was more interested in telling.”
Despite his steadfast attitude making the movie a success, the filmmaker noted that he would not be drawn into the trap of making Obsession a franchise, at least in the immediate short-term.
“I don’t want to go straight into Obsession 2,” Barker said. “I have such a cool idea for it that I won’t say. I’m not saying it has to be five, six years from now. But I think people would be just as excited for it if it came a little down the road. It’s a whirlwind and I’m trying to figure it out.”
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