Netflix Hit With $105 Million Lawsuit Over Stolen Hard Drive Containing Unreleased Nicolas Cage Film

Netflix is facing a $105 million lawsuit after an unreleased World War II thriller starring Nicolas Cage vanished amid a theft at the streamer's Los Angeles offices, with the filmmakers accusing the company of jeopardizing the movie's entire commercial future.

The suit, filed Thursday in California federal court by producer Afram and his company Op-Fortitude, claims Netflix's mishandling of a physical copy of the film titled Fortitude has left the project effectively unsellable, and demands at least $105 million in damages as compensation.

At the center of the dispute is an unencrypted master copy of the film that was among several hard drives stolen from Netflix's office last month. Following an internal investigation, the company determined that the other stolen drives had been empty, according to a source familiar with the matter, meaning the Fortitude copy appears to have been the only one of consequence taken.

Netflix has pushed back hard against the idea that it should bear responsibility for the loss, with a spokesperson saying the company disputes any suggestion that it assumes the risk for a film handed over without the encryption and security measures standard in the industry.

The spokesperson added that while Netflix does not hold the rights to the film, it takes content security seriously and has since taken additional steps to assist the filmmaking team, including launching a full investigation and offering to track piracy sites for signs of unauthorized leaks.

According to the lawsuit, Netflix's interest in acquiring Fortitude began after executives received promotional materials on the project back in December 2025, eventually requesting a working cut of the film in June. The filmmakers allege that Netflix asked them to hand over the key to the film's digital cinema package, the specialized format used to screen movies securely and restrict who can access them, so that the company could review the film internally before making an offer.

A producer for Fortitude personally delivered the drive to Netflix's offices at Sunset Bronson Studios on June 15, and the complaint states that the producer explicitly warned Netflix staff that the file was unencrypted, instructing them to delete it once the internal screening was finished and to alert him once the drive could be retrieved.

Ten days after that delivery, the lawsuit alleges, a Netflix executive informed the filmmakers that the drive had gone missing. An email from Sean Berney, Netflix's head of film acquisitions, sent June 25 and cited in the complaint, described the situation as unprecedented for the company, noting that a number of drives had been taken from employees' desks and that despite working with internal security teams, the company had not been able to recover them. Berney added that Netflix's anti-piracy teams were on alert following the breach and would continue monitoring for any leaks.

The lawsuit further accuses Netflix of stonewalling the filmmakers afterward, alleging the company would not confirm whether it had filed a police report or brought in law enforcement to pursue the stolen drives. Op-Fortitude claims that when its team filed its own report and asked Netflix to loop in the Los Angeles Police Department, the company declined.

For its part, Netflix has said it stopped sharing updates on its internal investigation only after a law firm representing Afram sent a demand for $165 million, which the company characterized as a hostile attempt to extort a payout rather than a good-faith effort to resolve the matter cooperatively.

Central to the filmmakers' financial argument is the claim that the theft has severely damaged the film's marketability, since any future distributor would now have to be informed that an unencrypted copy was stolen prior to release. That disclosure, they argue, could complicate acquisition talks, drive up insurance costs, disrupt marketing plans and heighten the danger that the film ends up leaking online before it ever reaches theaters or streaming.

The producers say they have halted sales discussions altogether, even as interest poured in from domestic and international buyers, putting both the film's release plans and its potential awards run in serious jeopardy.

Directed by Simon West, Fortitude dramatizes the real-life exploits of British Intelligence operatives who used inventive deception campaigns to mislead Nazi command during the war. The cast includes Nicolas Cage alongside Matthew Goode, Ed Skrein, Jordi Mollà and Alice Eve.