Netflix accused of LOSING Nicolas Cage war film in $105million suit

Netflix has been sued for $105 million by a film producer who claims the streaming company lost a hard drive containing a copy of an unreleased Nicolas Cage movie тιтled Forтιтude, impacting his ability to sell the film.

Simon Afram and his company Op-Forтιтude said in a legal complaint filed in California Thursday, and reviewed by the Daily Mail, that the hard drive which contained an unencrypted master copy of the film went missing after it was delivered to Netflix. 

After receiving promotional materials, Netflix initially said it was interested in reviewing the movie in December of 2025, Afram’s attorneys said in the complaint, and requested the unencrypted master copy in June. 

Afram said in the filing that ᴀssociate producer Daniel Haido on June 15 had brought an unencrypted master copy to the company’s Los Angeles office for evaluation purposes. 

He instructed Netflix officials to ‘ensure that it is deleted after the screening,’ according to the court filing.

The Daily Mail has reached out to representatives for Netflix and Afram’s attorneys for further comment on the story. 

Netflix has been sued for $105 million by a film producer who claims the streaming company lost a hard drive containing a copy of an unreleased Nicolas Cage movie тιтled Forтιтude, impacting his ability to sell the film. Cage pictured in May in NYC 

A spokesperson for Netflix told the Daily Mail in a statement Thursday, ‘Netflix disputes any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards.

‘While we do not own the rights to Forтιтude, we take content security seriously and have taken extra measures to support the filmmaker and his team. This includes conducting a thorough investigation and offering to monitor known piracy sites for any unauthorized distribution or sale.’

In a June 25 email, a Netflix exec informed Haido that the hard drive containing the movie had been stolen after ‘someone stole a good amount of drives from our office desks this past week,’ according to the filing. 

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Afram’s legal team said in the filing that ‘the film’s value depended in significant part on its exclusivity as an unreleased, first-to-market work,’ and ‘by losing control … Netflix destroyed that exclusivity and materially, if not completely, impaired the film’s marketability.

‘It is not fathomable that a sophisticated buyer would invest tens of millions of dollars to acquire the film – and tens of millions more to market it – while facing the constant risk that it could appear online to be viewed widely for free at any time.’

Sources at Netflix told the Daily Mail that ‘it is standard practice for these films to be shared either via a secure pᴀssword-protected link, or as a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) that is secured with what is known as a Key Delivery Message (KDM).

‘These measures limit access and protect against unauthorized use or loss. Unfortunately, the Forтιтude producers elected to share an unencrypted DCP with us for screening.’

Lawyers for Afram said that he had been in accordance with instructions from the streamer in the legal complaint, as they wrote, ‘If the DCP is encrypted, please have the keys open from the time the ᴀsset lands through EOD on 6/16.’

A spokesperson for Netflix told the Daily Mail in a statement Thursday, ‘Netflix disputes any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards 

The company said, ‘While we do not own the rights to Forтιтude, we take content security seriously and have taken extra measures to support the filmmaker and his team’

Netflix sources said that upon learning that ‘that the DCP was missing,’ the company ‘notified appropriate parties including our internal security team and the Forтιтude team.’

In the legal complaint, Afram said that the motion picture cost $45 million and took more than seven years to put together.

The storyline is based on a World War II mission тιтled Operation Forтιтude involving ‘double agents in cooperation with the British Army and Allied Nations who set a trap against Adolf Hitler and his army,’ according to the court filing.

The motion picture, which was directed by Simon West, also stars Sir Ben Kingsley, Ron Perlman, Matthew Goode, Michael Sheen, Art Malik, Jordi Mollà, and Lukas Haas.