Netflix sued after unreleased Nicholas Cage movie went “missing”
$45 million and 7 years wasted.
Nicholas Cage by Getty/ Michael Loccisano
- Producer Simon Afram and Op Fortitude are suing Netflix for $105 million over a missing pre-release copy of Fortitude.
- The lawsuit says Netflix requested an unencrypted copy, then failed to delete or secure it after screening.
- Afram alleges the missing drive damaged the film’s value by threatening its exclusivity before release.
- Netflix allegedly called the drive missing, not stolen, and declined to answer producers’ questions about its investigation.
Key Takeaways by nexos.ai, reviewed by Cybernews staff.
Netflix has been slapped with a $105 million lawsuit after a pre-release version of the anticipated Nicholas Cage thriller allegedly went “missing.”
Producer Simon Afram and his production house, Op Fortitude, are suing Netflix after an unencrypted copy of the upcoming historical thriller, Fortitude, allegedly vanished from the streaming giant’s Hollywood studio.
Fortitude is described as a mix between Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, two blockbuster films that more than recouped their enormous budgets.
The film, starring award-winning actors such as Nicholas Cage, Sir Ben Kingsley, and Ron Perlman, is based on World War II intelligence agent Dusan “Dusko” Popov, who served as a partial inspiration for Ian Fleming’s James Bond.
Afram’s lawyers paint a very clear picture of Fortitude’s expected success at the box office.
The movie’s $45 million budget, 7-year production timeline, and star-studded cast seem to be a tried-and-true formula for a successful Hollywood film.
That’s until Netflix allegedly made a massive mistake.
Unencrypted movie delivered to Netflix
After receiving interest from studios and distributors, Afram handed over a copy of Fortitude to arguably one of the world’s most prolific production studios.
Netflix was ready to evaluate the film ahead of a potential purchase, so someone hand-delivered an encrypted version of Fortitude to its Hollywood studio.
The multi-billion-dollar studio then “instructed (Afram and Op Fortitude) that if the Digital Cinema Package (DCP) was encrypted, it should be unlocked in order for Netflix to screen the film,” according to the lawsuit discovered by Bloomberg.
An unencrypted version of Fortitude was re-delivered to Netflix, after which, Afram and Op-Fortitude employees confirmed with the studio that the unlocked DCP must be deleted after watching.
Movie “stolen” right under Netflix’s nose
A week later, Netflix allegedly “failed to provide instruction for picking up the unencrypted DCP.”
After little communication, Afram and Op-Fortitude allege that an executive from Netflix sent an email with the subject “Stolen DCP.”
The email went on to say that an unknown person had stolen “a good amount of drives” from Netflix’s office.
The Netflix executive continued by saying that they’d been working with the company’s security team, but “no luck.”
The drive will be sold “for scrap”
Netflix allegedly knew about the theft for as long as a week before informing any of the producers involved.
However, in a potential attempt to calm Afram and other producers, the Netflix executive said that the stolen drive would likely be sold “for scrap, given they would require” a way to decrypt the files.
Netflix also said it could create a new DCP, revealing that it knew the movie was unencrypted and hadn’t followed the instructions to delete it after viewing.
Fortitude’s value and success are apparently contingent on “exclusivity as an unreleased first-to-market work,” which “Netflix destroyed.”
Afram, who personally invested $45 million and 7 years of his life in Fortitude, has accused Netflix of downplaying the situation and obscuring the true nature of the situation by reframing the event from a theft to a mistake.
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Not stolen, just missing, says Netflix
Following the incident, Netflix’s legal team got involved and refused to answer questions regarding the theft and the studio’s “supposed investigation.”
Lawyers even refused to tell the producers whether they’d filed a police report.
Netflix has also “recharacterized the DCP” as missing rather than being stolen, in what the victim sees as a narrative shift used to suppress and hide information and evidence, according to the allegations.
There’s also a mention of a “Doe” or “Does” involved in the “missing” drive, as Afram believes anywhere between 1 and 10 Does are “at fault in whole or in part for the claims alleged.”
The lawsuit asserts that the damage done through “mishandling… and subsequent dismissiveness” is profound.
Afram and his production house are seeking financial compensation of $105,000,000 plus an additional amount according to proof at trial.
Encrypted drives are industry standard, but Netflix doesn’t use them
It’s very common for studios to provide encrypted Digital Cinema Packages (DCP), a collection of locked files in a single folder, to potential distributors, for various reasons.
Whether it be that the film is under embargo, non-disclosure agreements have been signed, or the film can’t be shown publicly before the premiere date, encryption is justifiable, especially for major blockbuster films, according to The Post Factory.
Considering this is common practice, Afram and his production house allege that it gave the encrypted DCP to Netflix.
But Netflix doesn’t allow encrypted DCPs, as it requires an unencrypted copy to keep internally as an archival “master copy” of the film so it can create encrypted copies to distribute.
This archival copy is for internal use only and is never meant to leave Netflix’s offices.
