Netflix Lost a $45M Nicolas Cage Film Off Someone's Desk. Now It's Being Sued.
A lawsuit filed this week accuses Netflix of leaving an unencrypted drive containing an unreleased Nicolas Cage blockbuster sitting on an office desk, where someone promptly stole it. The film in question is Fortitude, a World War II spy thriller that filmmaker Simon Afram spent seven years and $45 million of his own money making. Netflix has admitted the theft happened. The argument is about who's responsible for the fallout.
Afram's production company, Op-Fortitude, claims Netflix waited roughly a week before telling anyone the drive was gone. They only found out when they started pestering Netflix to return it. Sean Berney, a director of Netflix Original Film, eventually replied by email admitting that "a good amount of drives" had been stolen from office desks. Not exactly the security briefing you'd hope for after handing over your unencrypted $45 million film.
The production company is asking the court to hold Netflix liable for at least $112.5 million, which they've calculated as 2.5 times the production budget, plus punitive damages on top. Their argument is straightforward: Netflix had the drive, Netflix lost the drive, and Netflix allegedly failed to take even basic precautions like locking it away or keeping it under camera surveillance.
Netflix's position is that this is entirely Op-Fortitude's problem because the drive wasn't encrypted. And here's where it gets interesting. According to the lawsuit, Netflix specifically requested an unlocked screener, telling the production company that it needed unencrypted content to "test" it and ensure a smooth screening. Netflix disputes this framing, insisting the lack of encryption was the production company's failure, not theirs.
Afram's team also alleges Netflix offered cold comfort after the theft was discovered. Rather than acknowledging the obvious risk that a stolen unencrypted film could leak online at any moment, Netflix's Berney apparently suggested the company would cover the cost of the missing drive and claimed thieves would need a key to access it. They wouldn't, allegedly, because Netflix had asked for it unlocked in the first place.
Netflix, for its part, says none of the other stolen drives contained any content, that Fortitude is not the only existing copy of the film, and that there's currently no evidence of a leak. The company also claims Afram's legal team immediately demanded $165 million rather than engaging constructively, which Netflix has characterised as an attempt at extortion. That's why, Netflix says, it stopped cooperating with their lawyers.
Afram disputes all of this and claims Netflix has refused to share any details about its internal investigation, won't confirm whether a police report was filed, and apparently declined to involve the LAPD. The complaint suggests that Netflix's reluctance to be transparent is itself telling, given that full disclosure would require admitting how many drives were stolen, what security measures were or weren't in place, and why the investigation has apparently gone nowhere.
The film itself sounds like a serious swing. Directed by Simon West and starring Nicolas Cage and Sir Ben Kingsley, Fortitude is based on the real-life story of a WWII spy who reportedly inspired Ian Fleming's James Bond. It was shot on 35mm film. Afram describes the tone as somewhere between Ocean's Eleven and Inglourious Basterds, which is either inspired or delusional, but either way it cost him four decades of savings and the better part of a decade to make.
Afram told Ars Technica that worldwide distribution rights are still available and interest in the film remains strong. Whether any distributor will want to touch it while a stolen unencrypted copy is floating around somewhere is another question entirely.
The core of this case will likely come down to who bears responsibility when a production company hands over unencrypted content at a streaming giant's explicit request and that content then walks out of the building. Netflix's standard line is that content security is taken seriously. The drive on the desk suggests otherwise.