{"id":24304,"date":"2026-08-01T16:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T11:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=24304"},"modified":"2026-08-01T16:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T11:04:13","slug":"netflix-hit-with-105m-suit-after-unreleased-movie-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=24304","title":{"rendered":"Netflix Hit With $105M Suit After Unreleased Movie Lost"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"post-body\">\n<div id=\"attachment_5747280\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5747280\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5747280\" src=\"https:\/\/am12.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26195742629454.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" srcset=\"https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26195742629454.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26195742629454-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/am14.mediaite.com\/med\/cnt\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26195742629454-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-5747280\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Photo by Weston Hancock \/ SOPA Images\/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>A $105 million lawsuit was filed against Netflix after an unreleased film starring <strong>Nicolas Cage<\/strong> was allegedly stolen from the streaming giant\u2019s Los Angeles office after the company requested a working cut while considering a distribution deal.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint, filed Thursday in California federal court by writer-producer <strong>Simon Afram<\/strong> and his company Op-Fortitude, accuses Netflix of mishandling an unencrypted master copy of Fortitude.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/tag\/netflix\/\">lawsuit<\/a>, ten days after a producer hand-delivered a hard drive containing the film, a World War II espionage thriller, to Netflix\u2019s Sunset Bronson Studios offices on June 15, <strong>Sean Berney<\/strong>, Netflix\u2019s head of film acquisitions, informed the filmmakers of the theft in an email.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a first for us. Unfortunately, someone stole a good amount of drives from our office desks this past week. We\u2019ve been working through this with out security teams to no luck. Our piracy teams are on high alert with the breach and will monitor,\u201d he said on June 25.<\/p>\n<p>The filmmakers argue the missing master copy has significantly damaged the film\u2019s value, claiming any future distributor would need to be informed that an unencrypted version of the movie was stolen before release.<\/p>\n<p>They contend that disclosure could affect negotiations, insurance coverage, marketing plans and increase the risk of an online leak, forcing them to halt discussions with interested domestic and international buyers.<\/p>\n<p>Netflix, however, rejected responsibility for the loss. In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/business-news\/netflix-lawsuit-unreleased-nicolas-cage-movie-1236660288\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a> to <em>The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>, a company spokesperson said:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>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 <em>Fortitude<\/em>, 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.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The lawsuit also alleges Netflix refused to disclose whether it reported the theft to police and later declined the filmmakers\u2019 request to involve the Los Angeles Police Department after they filed their own report.<\/p>\n<p>Netflix, however, said it withheld details because lawyers representing Afram demanded $165 million in what it described as a \u201chostile attempt to extort money\u201d instead of attempting to \u201cwork with us in good faith.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>New: The Mediaite One-Sheet &#8220;Newsletter of Newsletters&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/subscribe\">Subscribe now!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Photo by Weston Hancock \/ SOPA Images\/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images) A $105 million lawsuit was filed against Netflix after an unreleased film starring Nicolas Cage was allegedly stolen from the streaming giant\u2019s Los Angeles office after the company requested a working cut while considering a distribution deal. The complaint, filed Thursday in California federal&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.mediaite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AP26195742629454.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}