A stolen hard drive carrying an unreleased Nicolas Cage movie has turned into a $105 million Hollywood lawsuit, with filmmakers accusing Netflix of losing control of a master copy that could jeopardize the film’s future sale. The alleged theft happened at Netflix offices in Los Angeles, giving this Hollywood legal fight an unusually literal missing-reel plot.
The complaint, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court by writer-producer Simon Afram and his company, Op-Fortitude, alleges that an unencrypted master copy of the World War II thriller Fortitude was among several hard drives stolen from Netflix last month. The suit seeks at least $105 million in damages, according to MyNewsLA.
Fortitude is an unreleased espionage film directed by Simon West and written by Afram, with Cage joined by Matthew Goode, Ed Skrein, Alice Eve, Michael Sheen and Ben Kingsley. A production report carried by Yahoo Entertainment described the project as a World War II thriller based on Allied deception operations.
The filmmakers say they filed a police report and asked Netflix to involve the Los Angeles Police Department, but the company declined, according to the complaint. Netflix also declined to disclose whether it filed its own report or requested a law-enforcement investigation, while saying it disputes any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without proper industry-standard safeguards, MyNewsLA reported.
The Lawsuit Puts Content Security On Trial
Netflix said it does not own the rights to Fortitude but has taken additional steps to support the filmmakers, including investigating the incident and offering to monitor known piracy sites for unauthorized distribution or sales. That response sets up the central dispute: whether the theft was an unfortunate security failure, or whether Netflix had a legal duty to protect the film after receiving the drive.
For now, the complaint establishes allegations rather than a court finding, and the public account does not identify whoever allegedly took the drives. The case will likely turn on the parties’ agreements, the security instructions surrounding the master copy, and whether the claimed $105 million loss can be tied legally to what happened inside Netflix’s Los Angeles operation.
.jpg){kind=link}