$105M lawsuit alleges Nicolas Cage and Ben Kingsley film was stolen from Netflix’s offices

If you thought lost films were a thing of Hollywood's silent era, think again. Somehow, an entire unreleased Nicolas Cage film has gone walkabout inside Netflix HQ. Which, believe it or not, has landed everyone in a legal and financial mess that even Cage himself might struggle to chew his way through.

Producer Simon Afram is suing Netflix for $105 million after his World War II film ‘Fortitude’ vanished from their offices.

How Does an Entire Film Go Missing?

Let’s break this down: Simon Afram, a Swiss film producer, spent a massive seven years (and a cool $45 million) putting together Fortitude, which stars the ever-scenery-devouring Nicolas Cage and the ever-credible Ben Kingsley. The film itself hasn’t seen the light of day, and at this rate, it might never.

Apparently, an associate producer delivered a digital cinema package (fancy talk for the actual film on physical hard drives) by hand to Netflix headquarters in June. This was for an ‘acquisition screening’ — Netflix speak for ‘let’s see if we want to buy and show this’. All fine, you’d think, until it came time to pick up the film again. At that point, Netflix reportedly just… stopped answering their emails.

Eventually, Netflix did reply, but only to confirm the worst: the physical drives containing Fortitude had been stolen from their offices. Not a random USB stick, the only existing copy of a $45 million movie — just gone.

Security Slip-Ups And Finger-Pointing

Sean Berney, Netflix's director of original film, told Afram that multiple drives were nicked straight off office desks that week. Netflix ran an internal investigation, called in security, but couldn’t turn up anything.

Now, apparently, what you’re supposed to do (according to Netflix sources) is send unreleased films via encrypted, password-protected channels. Afram’s lawyers are having none of it — the lawsuit points to Netflix’s own delivery instructions, which said producers should keep decryption keys working through a specific date. And yes, the associate producer told Netflix the package was unencrypted and asked them to delete it after the screening. Afram’s camp believes Netflix was ultimately responsible for safeguarding the material.

Netflix, meanwhile, won’t accept the blame, claiming anything delivered to them without proper security is at your own risk. They say they combed through the incident, kept an eye on piracy sites (just in case Fortitude popped up somewhere it shouldn’t), and haven’t seen any sign of leaks. But things got uglier when Netflix accused Afram’s side of demanding an eye-watering $165 million and refusing to play ball in good faith.

The Film Was Already Cursed?

All of this comes after Fortitude already had drama before a single viewer saw a frame. Afram took director Martin Scorsese to court in 2023 for allegedly not pulling his weight as executive producer; they settled before it went any further.

Right now, no one knows if Fortitude will ever be found, let alone released, but one thing’s clear: if you’re sitting on unreleased Nicolas Cage footage, maybe don’t leave it lying about on a desk in Los Gatos.