Netflix lost a Nicolas Cage master. The producers want $105 million.

An unreleased Nicolas Cage WWII spy film lost its screening drive inside a Netflix office, and the producers want $105 million for it. Writer-producer Simon Afram and Op-Fortitude Ltd. sued Netflix, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (complaint filed late July 2026), alleging conversion and related contract claims after an unencrypted Digital Cinema Package of Fortitude vanished from desks at Sunset Bronson Studios.

This is not a piracy-leak post with a torrent link. As of the filing, the producers say the film still had no distributor attached, and reporting around the case has not pointed to a public leak. The fight is about custody, notice, and what a missing master does to a first-to-market sales campaign.

What the complaint says happened

According to the federal complaint:

Haido’s same-day written instruction after delivery, as quoted in the complaint: the DCP is unencrypted, so delete the files after the screening and call when the drive is ready for pickup.

Ten days later, Berney’s email (also in the filing) includes the line that made this a headline:

This is a first for us… Unfortunately, someone stole a good amount of drives from our office desks this past week. We’ve been working through this with our security teams to no luck. Our piracy teams are on high alert with the breach and will monitor.

The complaint argues Netflix left a known-unencrypted master on a desk, waited days to disclose the theft, then suggested thieves would need a KDM key that an unencrypted package does not require.

What Fortitude actually is

Fortitude is Simon West’s WWII espionage picture, written and financed by Afram, produced under Op-Fortitude. Cage plays real-life double agent Duško Popov, with an ensemble that includes Ben Kingsley, Matthew Goode, Ed Skrein, Alice Eve, and Michael Sheen. The story tracks Allied deception work around Operation Fortitude, the fake armies and double-agent theater that helped sell the wrong invasion picture before D-Day. The complaint even flags the production choice to shoot on 35mm for period texture.

The lawsuit’s money ask: at least $105 million, framed around Afram’s claimed $45 million-plus investment, paused sales talks, disclosure risk to future buyers, and the chance an unencrypted copy becomes a leak that nukes exclusivity. Plaintiffs also say Netflix refused to tell them whether a police report was filed.

Netflix’s side of the ledger

Netflix’s public line, via statement, is blunt: it disputes that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without proper industry-standard safeguards, says it does not own Fortitude rights, and claims it has taken extra security measures to help the filmmakers. The company also says it stopped sharing investigation details with Afram’s counsel after what it calls a hostile attempt to extort money, including a reported $165 million demand rather than good-faith cooperation.

That dispute is the whole case in one sentence: producers say Netflix asked for unlocked access and then lost the drive; Netflix says the delivery method was the security failure.

Confirmed vs still open

Why this matters beyond the Cage headline

Studios screen unfinished movies constantly. The ugly lesson here is chain of custody: if a buyer asks you to unlock a DCP, you need a vault path, not a desk path, and a pickup clock measured in hours, not a silent week. For buyers, the flip side is equally sharp: once you accept custody of an unencrypted first-to-market cut, “someone stole a good amount of drives” is not a footnote. It is the plot.

Fortitude still needs a distributor. Until the case settles or a court draws lines around bailment of unlocked DCPs, every buyer will treat the theft as diligence text in the deal memo.

Follow the movies feed and the Fortitude hub for the next court filing or sales update.