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New Delhi: Online streaming giant Netflix has been hit with a USD 105 million lawsuit by a film producer after the company lost an unencrypted copy of
his World War II film, Fortitude, starring Nicolas Cage and Ben Kingsley.
A Swiss businessman, Simon Afram, claimed in the lawsuit that he wrote the script and spent seven years and USD 45 million to bring it to screen.
Netflix faces USD 105 million lawsuit
An encrypted master copy of the film Fortitude, starring Nicolas Cage and Ben Kingsley, was stolen from a Los Angeles office last month. The movie producers have claimed that the theft has jeopardised the film’s commercial prospects and release strategy.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a complaint was filed on Thursday (July 30) in California federal court alleging that writer-producer Simon Afram and his company are seeking damages after a hard drive containing the unreleased film Fortitude was stolen from Netflix’s office at Sunset Bronson Studios.
The producers argued that the loss has compromised their ability to sell the project to prospective distributors.
On June 15, a Fortitude producer hand-delivered the drive to the Netflix office after executives expressed interest in the World War II thriller. The promotional material was sent in December 2025.
The producer even instructed the company to delete the files after screening and to notify him when to collect the drive.
The drive contained an unencrypted digital cinema package, a vehicle through which films are delivered for screening. Ten days after the delivery, an executive informed that the drive had been stolen from office desks.
An investigation revealed that other stolen drives were empty and the copy of Fortitude had not been discovered yet.
Head of film acquisitions, Sean Berney, wrote in an email on June 25, ” This is 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 producers argued that the theft of the film’s drive is a significant loss as the film could get leaked online before commercial release. It could also affect acquisition negotiations, insurance coverage and marketing plans.
After the film’s drive was stolen from Netflix’s office, the filmmaker paused sales efforts on Fortitude despite receiving interest from multiple domestic and international distributors, negatively impacting their planned release strategy and awards campaigns.
They further alleged that the company refused to disclose whether they filed a police complaint or enlisted law enforcement to investigate the theft, and later declined a request to involve the Los Angeles Police Department after filmmakers filed their own report.
What did Netflix say?
Following the theft, Netflix’s security protocols have come under scrutiny. Netflix denied responsibility for the loss, stating that the film was delivered “without proper industry-standard safeguards”.
The company added that it does not own the rights to the film and has taken extra measures to support the filmmaker and his team, including conducting a thorough investigation and offering to monitor known piracy sites for any unauthorised distribution or sale of the film.
About Fortitude
Directed by Simon West, Fortitude is based on a true story of British Intelligence operatives using novel strategic operations to deceive Nazi leadership during World War II. The film also features Matthew Goode, Ed Skrein, Jordi Mollà, and Alice Eve.
