Netflix has landed itself in big trouble following the theft of an unreleased Nicolas Cage movie. Such an unprecedented development has led to Netflix being sued for a huge amount of money.
The Nicolas Cage movie titled Fortitude was reportedly stolen from Netflix’s Los Angeles office. Reacting to the incident, the filmmaker and his company, Op-Fortitude, have brought charges of compromising the sale of the unreleased movie. Furthermore, an amount of at least $105 million has been mentioned in the lawsuit, which was filed at the California Federal Court this Thursday.
Netflix, however, has pointed out that the unencrypted master copy of Fortitude failed to maintain the standard safety methods.
“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 Fortitude, 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,” read a statement from one of its spokespersons, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Netflix declined filmmakers’ request to involve the LAPD
Following the incident, Netflix has been reportedly accused of being reluctant to provide proper details about whether the company has filed a police report. The lawsuit also details that the filmmaker had requested that Netflix bring in the Los Angeles Police Department to help in the ongoing investigation. However, the streaming giant did not comply and rejected the plea.
Replying to the accusations, Netflix countered by saying that a law firm had allegedly tried to ‘extort’ $165 million for the theft of the movie. This was, according to the streaming company, a clear signal that team Fortitude was more interested in coercing money rather than cooperating with the company in resolving the situation.
The lawsuit states that Netflix was seemingly interested in buying the movie back in December 2025. By June 15, the movie’s hard drive allegedly reached Sunset Bronson Studios via a producer. More information revealed that the producer instructed the concerned party at Netflix to permanently delete the files from the unencrypted DCP immediately following the screening.
