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Swiss businessman and producer Simon Afram has reportedly sued Netflix for $105 million this week over an unencrypted copy of his yet-to-be-released historical espionage action-adventure “Fortitude” being lost according to Variety.
Nicolas Cage, Matthew Goode, Ed Skrein, Alice Eve, Michael Sheen, Ben Kingsley, Jordi Mollà and Lukas Haas star in the film helmed by Simon West (“Con Air,” “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”) which deals with the true story of British Intelligence operatives using unprecedented strategic operations (ie. counterintelligence) that fool Nazi leadership, ultimately changing the course of World War II.
In the filing, it’s stated that an associate producer dropped off a digital cinema package (DCP) at Netflix headquarters in June so the company could consider buying the rights.
When trying to retrieve the film, they claim Netflix became unresponsive, and it took over a week of repeated efforts before Netflix acknowledged via email that the film had been stolen.
Sean Berney, director of original film at Netflix, reportedly wrote: “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.”
Netflix sources tell the trade that it is standard to share unreleased films either via a password-protected link or with an encrypted DCP that could only be viewed with a Key Delivery Message. As a result, they say they’re not responsible for the failure to take such precautions:
“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 ‘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 unauthorised distribution or sale.”
Afram’s lawsuit argues that his team was following Netflix’s directions, which stated: “If the DCP is encrypted, please have the keys open from the time the asset lands through EOD on 6/16.” So far there is no sign that the film has leaked.
Previously, Afram sued director Martin Scorsese in 2023, accusing him of pocketing $500,000 to serve as an executive producer, and then did nothing to help get the project off the ground. Scorsese’s lawyers countersued, and the parties settled out of court.
The post Netflix Sued By Producer Over “Fortitude” appeared first on Dark Horizons.
