Netflix has been sued for allegedly losing an unencrypted copy of a $45 million Nicolas Cage thriller that took seven years to produce, exposing the unreleased film to potential piracy and leaks.

The lawsuit, which seeks $105 million in damages, was filed by Op-Fortitude Ltd. and its owner, Swiss film producer and financier Simon Afram, who also accused Netflix of covering up the security breach.

The film, Fortitude, was based on the real-life World War II Operation Fortitude, a massive Allied deception campaign designed to convince Nazi Germany that the D-Day invasion would occur elsewhere. The operation had relied on a fake army, double agents and false radio traffic.

According to the lawsuit, the incident caused devastating financial losses by compromising the film’s first-to-market exclusivity and distribution value, forcing the plaintiffs to temporarily pause marketing and sales efforts ahead of awards season. 

The complaint says test screenings projected an 82% “top-two box” audience score, meaning 82% of viewers rated the film among the two highest categories, and conservatively estimated that the movie would generate at least $112.5 million in revenue — roughly 2.5 times its production budget. 

In a statement to FOX Business, Netflix denied wrongdoing, arguing the movie was delivered without industry-standard safeguards such as password protection or encryption. The company also accused the plaintiffs of making “hostile attempts to extort money from Netflix over this situation.” 

The dispute stems from a private screening Netflix reportedly requested between late 2025 and mid-2026. 

While the plaintiffs alleged Netflix requested an unlocked or unencrypted copy to streamline the screening process, Netflix disputed that claim, saying security safeguards are standard practice and that the filmmakers voluntarily chose to provide an unencrypted version.  

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs informed Netflix both verbally and in writing that the drive was unencrypted and instructed the company to delete the files from its projection system after the screening. 

After an unencrypted digital master drive was delivered to Netflix’s Hollywood studio on June 15, 2026, Netflix held the screening on June 16. The media giant then left the unencrypted file unattended on an office desk without basic physical or digital security controls, where it later disappeared, plaintiffs said. 

The lawsuit alleged Netflix concealed the breach by repeatedly postponing or ignoring requests from the plaintiffs to arrange pickup of the drive between June 17 and June 25. The plaintiffs said it was not until June 25 that a Netflix executive emailed them stating that “someone stole a good amount of drives from our office desks this past week.”   

Netflix has denied those allegations, saying it notified the appropriate parties as soon as its team became aware of the incident. 

The plaintiffs further accused Netflix of trying to downplay the incident by claiming the stolen drive required an encryption key to access the film, despite knowing the drive was unencrypted. The lawsuit also claims Netflix offered to reimburse only the cost of the physical drive and referred to the asset as “missing” rather than “stolen.” 

In a statement to FOX Business, Netflix said: “Netflix disputes any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards,” the company said. “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.”

The plaintiffs also accused Netflix and its outside counsel of refusing to answer basic questions about the company’s internal investigation, including whether a police report had been filed, and declined to cooperate with the Los Angeles Police Department after the filmmakers filed their own report. 

In response, Netflix said it withheld details of its investigation because of what it described as the plaintiffs’ conduct, claiming they had initially demanded $165 million for the film rather than work with the company.

“We have declined to share anything about our ongoing investigation with the law firm representing Simon Afram, given their hostile attempts to extort money from Netflix over this situation — including immediately demanding $165 million for the film rather than work with us in good faith.”

The company added that its content security team is actively monitoring piracy websites for unauthorized copies of the film and said it has found no evidence that Fortitude has been leaked.