DistantNews
Support us
🇺🇸 United States /Culture & Society

Netflix sued for allegedly losing unreleased Nicolas Cage movie

From CBS News · () English

Summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources In the courts
  • A U.K. production company and filmmaker are suing Netflix for $105 million, alleging the streaming giant lost a master copy of an unreleased Nicolas Cage movie.
  • The plaintiffs claim Netflix's negligence in losing the unencrypted drive, which contained the film "Fortitude," has undermined its commercial prospects.
  • Netflix disputes responsibility, stating it is not liable for films delivered without standard industry safeguards and has offered to monitor piracy sites.

Netflix faces a $105 million lawsuit from a U.K.-based production company and a filmmaker who allege the streaming service lost a master copy of an unreleased espionage movie starring Nicolas Cage. The plaintiffs contend that Netflix's failure to safeguard the film has significantly damaged its marketability and commercial prospects.

Someone stole a good amount of drives from our office desks this past week.

— Netflix executiveAs cited in the lawsuit, describing the theft of data drives from Netflix's office.

The lawsuit, filed in a California district court, claims that an associate producer, Daniel Haido, personally delivered an unencrypted master copy of the film, titled "Fortitude," to Netflix for a potential acquisition screening. Haido reportedly instructed the Netflix employee to delete the files after the screening. However, about a week later, Netflix informed the filmmakers that the drive had been stolen from their office.

The film's value depended in significant part on its exclusivity as an unreleased, first-to-market work.

— Plaintiffs' complaintExplaining the basis of their claim regarding marketability.

"Fortitude," which reportedly took over seven years and $45 million to produce, depicts a World War II secret mission. The film features Nicolas Cage as real-life spy Dusko Popov, alongside Sir Ben Kingsley and Ron Perlman. The plaintiffs argue that the loss of control over the film's master copy destroys its exclusivity as an unreleased work, potentially deterring other studios from acquiring its rights due to the risk of free distribution by third parties.

By losing control of the film, Netflix destroyed that exclusivity and materially, if not completely, impaired the film's marketability.

— Plaintiffs' complaintDetailing the alleged impact of the lost film copy.

A Netflix spokesperson stated that the company "disputes any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards." While acknowledging the seriousness of content security, the spokesperson added that Netflix does not own the rights to "Fortitude" but has taken extra measures to support the filmmakers. The company has also offered to monitor piracy websites for unauthorized distribution of the movie.

We dispute any claim that we bear the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards.

— Netflix spokespersonStating Netflix's position on liability for the lost film.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by CBS News. Summarized and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

More Stories

From Our Blog