A theft at Netflix's Los Angeles office has brought an unreleased film starring Nicolas Cage into the spotlight. The film's producers have filed a $105 million damages lawsuit against the streaming platform over the stolen disk.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the lawsuit was filed in California federal court. The plaintiffs include the film's screenwriter and producer, Swiss businessman Simon Afram, and his company Op-Fortitude.
The spy thriller "Fortitude" is set in London and follows British intelligence agents who changed the course of World War II. Alongside Nicolas Cage, the film stars Matthew Goode, Michael Sheen and Ben Kingsley, and its budget was announced as $45 million.
Allegedly, on June 15 the producers delivered the disk containing the film to Netflix's Los Angeles office. Stating that the disk was not encrypted, they requested that it be deleted immediately after viewing. However, a few days later, thieves broke into the office and stole the copy of "Fortitude" along with several other disks on desks.
Netflix's head of film acquisition Sean Burney said the company had never experienced such a theft before and that the security team could not locate the thieves.
The producers, meanwhile, claim that Netflix refused to disclose whether it had contacted the police and rejected a request to involve the Los Angeles Police Department. The complaint states that the theft has significantly complicated the sale of the film to a potential distributor.
In a statement, Netflix said, "We are not responsible for films delivered without appropriate security measures. While we do not own the rights to 'Fortitude,' we take content security seriously and have taken additional steps to support the director and his team. This includes conducting a thorough investigation and offering to monitor known pirate sites to detect any unauthorized distribution or sale of the film."
Variety magazine noted that the film has had a "difficult fate." In 2023, producer Simon Afram sued renowned director Martin Scorsese. Afram claimed that Scorsese had received $500,000 as executive producer of the film but did nothing to start its production. Scorsese's lawyers countersued, arguing that Afram had "unrealistic expectations" because he was "new" to the industry. The parties later reached a settlement.
