Netflix has been suedfor at least $105m after an unencrypted copy of an unreleased Nicolas Cage film was stolen from its Los Angeles office.
Swiss writer-producer Simon Afram and his UK-based production company Op-Fortitude filed the lawsuiton Wednesday in the US district court for the Central District of California.
They alleged that Netflix failed to properly secure a hard drive containing a master copy of the Second World War spy thriller Fortitude, destroying the film’s exclusivity and significantly reducing its commercial value.
Afram has invested more than $45m in the project, which took seven years to complete.
Directed by Simon West, Fortitude is based on Operation Fortitude, the Allied deception campaign that misled Nazi Germany before the D-day landings during the second world war. The film stars Nicolas Cage as Serbian double agent Duško Popov alongside Ben Kingsley, Matthew Goode, Michael Sheen, Ron Perlman, Alice Eve, Ed Skrein, and Jordi Mollà.
According to the complaint, Netflix wanted to acquire Fortitude after they received promotional materials in December 2025 and requested a working cut in June this year.
On 15 June, an associate producer hand-delivered an unencrypted digital cinema package (DCP) to Netflix’s Los Angeles offices, telling staff to delete the files after screening the film and to notify him when the hard drive was ready to be picked up.
The lawsuit said the filmmakers complied with Netflix’s delivery instructions, which, according to a Varietyreport, stated: “If the DCP is encrypted, please have the keys open from the time the asset lands through EOD on 6/16.”
The complaint alleged that the producer informed Netflix that the copy was unencrypted.
Nine days later, Netflix informed the filmmakers that the hard drive had been stolen.
In an email dated 25 June, Netflix’s head of film acquisitions Sean Berney wrote: “This is a first for us. Unfortunately, someone stole a good amount of drives from our office desks this past week. We’ve been working through this with our security teams to no luck. Our piracy teams are on high alert with the breach and will monitor.”
The complaint said that Netflix later refused to say whether it had filed a police report and declined a request from the filmmakers to involve the Los Angeles Police Department after they had filed their own report. The producers also alleged Netflix refused to disclose details of its internal investigation.
Afram and Op-Fortitude argue the theft has made Fortitude significantly harder to sell because any prospective distributor would have to be told that an unencrypted copy was stolen before its release.
They claim this could affect acquisition negotiations, insurance coverage, and marketing plans, while creating the risk of the film leaking online before its commercial release.
According to the complaint, the producers have paused sales discussions despite interest from multiple domestic and international distributors, putting the planned release strategy and awards campaign on hold.
The producers argue that “the film’s value depended in significant part on its exclusivity as an unreleased, first-to-market work” and that “by losing control of the film, Netflix destroyed that exclusivity and materially, if not completely, impaired the film’s marketability”.
The lawsuit also argues “it is not fathomable that a sophisticated buyer would invest tens of millions of dollars” in acquiring and marketing the film while facing the risk that it could appear online for free at any time.
A Netflix spokesperson rejected the producers’ claims, saying: “Netflix disputes any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards.”
The spokesperson added: “While we do not own the rights to Fortitude, we take content security seriously and have taken extra measures to support the filmmaker and his team.”
The Independenthas reached out to Netflix for comment.
Netflix also said it had refused to share details of its investigation with Afram’s lawyers “given their hostile attempts to extort money from Netflix over this situation – including immediately demanding $165m for the film rather than work with us in good faith”.
ly exchange unreleased films using password-protected links or encrypted DCPs that require a Key Delivery Message for access
They added that so far, it doesn’t appear that Fortitude has been leaked since the theft.
