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A film producer sued Netflix for $105 million on Wednesday after the company lost an unencrypted copy of his World War II film “Fortitude,” starring Nicolas Cage and Ben Kingsley.
Simon Afram, a Swiss businessman, wrote the script and spent seven years and $45 million bringing it to the screen, according to his lawsuit. The complaint states that an associate producer dropped off a digital cinema package at Netflix headquarters in June so that the company could consider whether to buy the rights.
But when the associate producer tried to retrieve the film, Netflix became unresponsive, according to the complaint. More than a week later, after repeated efforts to arrange a pickup, Netflix acknowledged via email that the film had been stolen.
“This is a first for us,” wrote Sean Berney, director of original film at Netflix. “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.”
“Fortitude” has had a troubled history. In 2023, Afram sued director Martin Scorsese, accusing him of pocketing $500,000 to serve as an executive producer and then doing nothing to help get the project off the ground. Scorsese’s lawyers countersued, argued that Afram was a newcomer to the industry with unrealistic expectations. The parties settled out of court the following year.
Sources at Netflix say it is standard to share unreleased films either via a password-protected link or with an encrypted DCP that could only be viewed with a Key Delivery Message. In a statement, the company said it is not responsible for the failure to take such precautions.
“Netflix disputes any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards,” the company said in a statement.
Afram’s lawsuit argues that his team was following Netflix’s directions, which stated: “If the DCP is encrypted, please have the keys open from the time the asset lands through EOD on 6/16.”
According to the complaint, the associate producer informed the company that the DCP was unencrypted, and asked that the film be deleted after the screening. The lawsuit argues that Netflix had a responsibility to store the film in a secure location, and not leave it on an office desk where it could be stolen.
Netflix said in the statement that it is doing what it can to make things right.
“While we do not own the rights to ‘Fortitude,’ we take content security seriously and have taken extra measures to support the filmmaker and his team,” the company said. “This includes conducting a thorough investigation and offering to monitor known piracy sites for any unauthorized distribution or sale.”
So far, the sources say, there is no sign that the film has leaked. In his email, Berney suggested that the thieves were probably just selling the drives for scrap.
Afram’s lawsuit argues that Netflix’s negligence has jeopardized the film’s exclusivity, thus harming its market value. The suit also complains that Netflix has refused to share details of its investigation, or say whether it reported the theft to the police.
For its part, Netflix has not been thrilled with Afram’s response to the situation either.
“We have declined to share anything about our ongoing investigation with the law firm representing Simon Afram, given their hostile attempts to extort money from Netflix over this situation – including immediately demanding $165 million for the film rather than work with us in good faith,” the company said.
English (US) ·