A UK-based production company and a filmmaker filed a $105 million lawsuit against Netflix on Wednesday, claiming the streaming company lost an unencrypted drive containing the only copy of an unreleased film starring Nicolas Cage.
The complaint, filed in California district court, centers on a film called "Fortitude." The movie took more than seven years to make and cost $45 million to produce, according to CBS News. It tells the story of Operation Fortitude, a real World War II deception mission designed to mislead Nazi Germany about the Allied invasion of Europe. Cage plays Dusko Popov, an actual spy from that era. Sir Ben Kingsley and Ron Perlman also star in the film.
According to the lawsuit, associate producer Daniel Haido hand-delivered an unencrypted master copy of the film to Netflix so the company could screen it as a potential buyer. Haido verbally instructed the Netflix employee receiving the drive to delete the files after the screening.
A little over a week after the screening, Netflix emailed the filmmakers to report the drive had been stolen. The email, quoted in the complaint, stated: "Someone stole a good amount of drives from our office desks this past week."
The plaintiffs argue the theft destroyed the film's commercial value. The complaint states: "The film's value depended in significant part on its exclusivity as an unreleased, first-to-market work. By losing control of the film, Netflix destroyed that exclusivity and materially, if not completely, impaired the film's marketability."
The lawsuit also argues that potential buyers would now be reluctant to invest in acquiring and marketing the film. "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," the complaint says.
The production company has paused marketing and sales of the film while the lawsuit proceeds.
Netflix disputed the claims. A spokesperson said the company "disputes any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards." The company said it has offered to monitor piracy sites for unauthorized distribution of the movie. "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 spokesperson said.
