A dispute between a producer and Netflix over a missing copy of a WWII spy drama starring Nicolas Cage has now reached the Los Angeles Police Department.
A law firm representing producer Simon Afram filed a report with the Hollywood Community Police Station, accusing Netflix of losing a drive with a copy of his WWII film, “Fortitude” last month and not providing information on the streamer’s investigation into the issue.
“This report is being made on an emergency basis, as there is reason to believe that Netflix, Inc. and its employees are suppressing and/or spoliating evidence of the theft of an asset with a cost of $45 million to create and a likely sale value of over twice that amount,” according to Afram’s complaint which was viewed by The Times. The complaint, filed July 15, asks for law enforcement to investigate the movie’s theft and “identify all responsible parties, preserve all relevant evidence, and press charges against the responsible parties.”
Netflix declined to comment on Afram’s complaint to police.
Afram and his production company sued Netflix last month for at least $105 million in economic damages for the missing drive that contained “Fortitude,” a movie starring Cage and Sir Ben Kingsley. The film, described as “Ocean’s Eleven” meets “Inglourious Basterds,” is based on Operation Fortitude, an effort during World War II in which double agents set a trap for Adolf Hitler and his armies.
On June 15, Daniel Haido, an associate producer of “Fortitude,” dropped off an unencrypted copy of the movie for Netflix to view, according to the lawsuit. On June 25, Netflix informed Haido the drive had been stolen, the lawsuit said.
“Unfortunately, someone stole a good amount of drives from our office desks this past week,” Sean Berney, a director for original film at Netflix, wrote in a June 25 email, according to the lawsuit. “We’ve been working through this with our security teams to no luck.”
Berney in his email offered to reimburse Afram’s company for the missing drive or create a new digital cinema package, but Afram said the damage was much greater than that, according to the lawsuit.
“It is not fathomable that a sophisticated buyer would invest tens of millions of dollars to acquire the Film — and tens of millions more to market it — while facing the constant risk that it could appear online to be viewed widely for free at any time,” Afram’s lawsuit said.
Netflix said in a statement last month that it is conducting an investigation and is offering to monitor piracy sites for any authorized distribution or sale of the film.
“Netflix disputes any claim that it bears the risk of loss for a film delivered without the proper industry-standard safeguards,” the company said in a statement last month. “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.”
The streamer said it has not shared information on its investigation with Afram’s law firm, accusing the firm of “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.”
Earlier this month, Afram added a defamation claim to his lawsuit against Netflix.
“Netflix’s statement that Mr. Afram and his attorneys attempted to extort money from Netflix is entirely false, as are the purported facts on which Netflix based this false statement,” according to his amended lawsuit.
Staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.
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