Simon Afram and Op-Fortitude filed a Netflix $105 million lawsuit in California federal court on Thursday after an unencrypted copy of Fortitude was stolen from Netflix's Los Angeles office. The filing says the loss has made the unreleased Nicolas Cage World War II film harder to sell, because any buyer now has to be told the drive was taken before release.
The suit seeks at least $105 million and centers on one of several drives that were stolen last month. Fortitude is an unreleased World War II ensemble feature directed by Simon West, and the complaint says the copy delivered for screening was intended to be deleted afterward.
June 15 at Sunset Bronson Studios
On June 15, a producer for Fortitude hand-delivered the drive to Netflix's office at Sunset Bronson Studios. The complaint says the producer told Netflix the DCP was unencrypted and instructed the company to delete the files after the screening before notifying him when the drive was ready to be picked up.
Ten days later, a Netflix executive disclosed that it was stolen. Sean Berney wrote in an email on June 25 that someone stole a good amount of drives from Netflix's office desks the previous week. He added, "This is a first for us" and that "Unfortunately, someone stole a good amount of drives from our office desks this past week. We've been working through this with out security teams to no luck. Our piracy teams are on high alert with the breach and will monitor."
Netflix and the $165 million demand
Netflix said it declined to share details about its ongoing investigation after a law firm representing Afram demanded $165 million for the movie. A Netflix spokesperson said, "Netflix disputes any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards."
The same statement added, "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."
For Afram, the case now turns on whether the stolen copy can be tied to a measurable drop in sale value. The producers say any future deal has to account for the stolen unencrypted copy, and the next pressure point is whether Netflix's investigation or the court record changes that calculation before the film is shopped again.
