A Nicolas Cage movie vanished inside Netflix headquarters and now there’s a $105 million problem. The streamer faces a lawsuit after an unreleased World War II film starring Cage and Ben Kingsley went missing from its offices.
Unreleased Nicolas Cage movie Fortitude has disappeared inside Netflix
Swiss film producer Simon Afram launched a $105 million lawsuit against Netflix on Wednesday over the loss of his unreleased World War II movie Fortitude, Variety reported. The film features Nicolas Cage and Ben Kingsley in leading roles. Afram spent seven years and $45 million writing and producing the project.
An associate producer hand-delivered a digital cinema package to Netflix headquarters in June for an acquisition screening. Yet when the associate producer later tried to collect the film, the streaming giant stopped responding. Netflix eventually confirmed through email that the physical drives containing the film had been stolen.
Sean Berney, Netflix’s director of original film, addressed the situation in his email correspondence. He explained that thieves took multiple drives from office desks during that week. He also noted that internal security teams had investigated the matter without any success.
Fortitude already had a troubled history before this incident. Afram sued director Martin Scorsese in 2023 over alleged unfulfilled executive producer duties. The parties settled out of court the following year.
Netflix sources say standard protocol requires sharing unreleased films through encrypted or password-protected channels. Afram’s legal team countered by citing Netflix’s own delivery instructions in the complaint. Those instructions told producers to keep decryption keys active through a specific date.
The associate producer reportedly informed Netflix the package was unencrypted and requested deletion after screening. Afram’s complaint argues Netflix had a duty to store the material securely. Netflix denied responsibility for content delivered without proper security measures.
The streamer said it conducted a thorough internal investigation and offered to monitor piracy sites for unauthorized copies. No evidence of a leak has surfaced so far. Netflix also accused Afram’s legal team of demanding $165 million rather than cooperating in good faith.
